‘These players have earned it’

1. The attitude of the players.

John Allen: I know people have heard me say it over and over again, but the buy-in from the players has been fantastic. Much as we did with Cork years ago, the key thing is to get the senior players to accept what you’re doing and your reasons for what you’re doing, because it then ripples out from them to the rest of the panel. And guys like Donal O’Grady, Niall Moran, Seamus Hickey, Tom Condon, those guys all accepted our plans; they all took on board why we were insistent on hydration, on nutrition, on getting the gym programmes done, and the others followed. It’s not a static thing — you’ve go to keep reassuring guys that you’re doing the right thing, that you know why you’re doing all those things. But if the players buy in to it, and the Limerick lads have, then the whole thing ends up running itself very smoothly because of that.”

2. The first minute out of the dressing room.