Hurling championship preview: Limerick will have to write history the hard way

Once upon a time, there was a hurling-mad county who hadn't won the All-Ireland in 45 years.

But they broke the curse, became the greatest team ever and everyone was delighted for them. The end.

Maybe.

274 days after lifting Liam MacCarthy for the fourth successive year, and for the fifth time in six seasons, Limerick tomorrow begin what could be the final chapter of the fairytale: securing the first hurling five in a row.

John Kiely’s men are deservedly hot favourites to do so.

The Treaty look invincible at Croke Park, where they haven’t been beaten in almost five years. They even went five points down in last year's final before outscoring Kilkenny 19-5 in the closing half hour.

They won without Sean Finn and captain Declan Hannon last year and without Cian Lynch and Peter Casey (until the latter stages) in 2022.

While there are occasional mutterings about the sponsorship of billionaire JP McManus, resentment of Limerick’s success has yet to reach that of Dublin football proportions.

It might help that their spectacular success has been built around the Under-21-winning teams of 2015 and ’17 rather than a conveyor belt of talent.

They are widely acknowledged as a team of superbly organised, skilful hurlers, who though they might 'play on the edge’ a bit - and why not if it's rarely punished? - are at least not one of the game’s traditional Big Three.

Nonetheless, any sport gets dull quickly when one team dominates, so most neutrals will be hoping that, like Kilkenny in 2010 or Cork in 1945, five proves one too many for Limerick. Or that they at least might have the decency to stop after that.

Everybody’s got to lose some time, as The Korgis almost wrote, but will it be this year?

It could. The simplicity of the roll of honour can