From disarray to dominance - Limerick won't stop here

There was 70 minutes, nearly 71 minutes on the clock. Three points in it and three minutes to go. Tommy Walsh comes storming out of defence with loads of time remaining. As he looks up, there are two Kilkenny lads screaming for the ball, unmarked in the middle of the field.

This means Limerick must have sat back. A spray ball to them, a crisp 15-yard pass and a real scoring opportunity. That goes over, and it's two points behind, two minutes left.

All bets are off.

Instead, he just keeps the head down and launches the ball down upon the middle of the Limerick defence. Limerick have bodies back, it falls to Declan Hannon, who doesn't do what Walsh did, he played the short pass to Gearóid Hegarty, who fires David Blanchfield off him, and scores a screamer from god kows what distance.

I saw that moment happening in real time, and I just said to myself, that is what separates Limerick from everybody else. When it matters most, Limerick actually don’t care. It could be a challenge match, or an All-Ireland final, but with the game in the mixer, they just repeat, repeat, repeat.

And the reason they repeat is because what happens out there, is what happens behind closed doors. Teams might think they are doing the same, might tell you they are doing the same but they are obviously not.

There was a lot of talk about how Brian Cody turned around to his selectors in Pearse Stadium in disgust and told them to give up the short ball. True or not, it hints at a distrust in the tactic in Kilkenny that has long been discussed. You either believe in it or you don’t. You either do it or you don’t.

Of course, there is always room for the long ball, and Limerick do it a lot as well, don’t be fooled and think otherwise. But it's knowing when to play