Did Limerick overpower their only real rivals? Was that the best Waterford can manage?

If tonight's Munster thriller was the first of a trilogy, how does it set up the narrative for parts two and three?

Limerick’s Sean Finn and Michael Kiely of Waterford

In the blizzard of noise and numbers which accompany every championship game these days, one failsafe metric reared its head at Saturday night’s Munster SHC tie between Limerick and Waterford.

With 30 minutes played the stadium announcer informed the Gaelic Grounds crowd - a healthy 27,488 - that a lost child had been found and was available for collection. You see shells and you guess eggs: the game being played was the kind nobody wanted to tear their eyes away from.