All-Ireland final: Three 'did you knows' ahead of Sunday's spectacle 

SHOWDOWN: Aaron Gillane of Limerick. ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Try these three ‘did you knows’ on for size:

1: Sunday’s final is the first All-Ireland hurling decider involving the Leinster and Munster champions since 2016, when Tipperary ran riot against Kilkenny.

The same two counties also progressed on from provincial glory to meet on the concluding day of action in 2009 and 2011. Indeed, you’d have to go back to the 2006 Cork-Kilkenny decider to find an All-Ireland final consisting of both provincial winners that didn’t bring together Tipp and Cody’s Kilkenny.

2: Limerick, as we all know, are a death by a thousand cuts kind of team, rather than one that goes bull-headed chasing green flags.

Their semi-final win did not include any shaking of the Galway net, the same as their 2020 Munster final, All-Ireland semi-final, and final wins. Will another points total in the mid-20s be sufficient against Kilkenny, a county whose long and rich history shows just two All-Ireland final defeats - 1999 and 2004, both to Cork - where the opposition did not need to raise a green flag to come out on top?

3: Keeping with the green flag, Brian Concannon’s goal two weeks ago was the first Limerick had conceded in the championship in a remarkable four and a half hours (this bettered their 225 minutes without conceding a goal in the 2020 championship). Having twice kept Clare goalless, the second time across 90 minutes, as well as Tipperary, Concannon’s strike was the first time Nickie Quaid had been beaten going right back to Jack Prendergast’s goal 65 minutes into the Limerick-Waterford Munster round-robin game on April 23.

Another scroll through Kilkenny’s final history shows the county has won just one All-Ireland final - 1947 - when failing to raise a green flag.