Not-so-ancient history - What Limerick learned in 2019

It has been 1,085 days since Limerick last lost a hurling championship match.

Shane Lowry had just won the Open. Boris Johnson was considering the decor of his new residence on Downing Street.

Over the course of the Green Machine's subsequent 14 wins and single draw - unless you're of the school of thought that extra-time is a new game - the question has often presented itself, just how did Kilkenny manage to win the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final?

A quick recap tells us that the Cats tore into the favourites and an early goal from the since-retired Colin Fennelly helped them into a nine-point lead inside the opening 15 minutes. Aaron Gillane's penalty narrowed the gap to three by half-time and substitute Shane Dowling's batted goal set up a thrilling finish, Kilkenny pulling clear again before holding on by a point with the benefit of a missed 65 call.

What a goal from Shane Dowling! Game on, Ger. Watch the highlights on @RTE2 tomorrow night at 9.30pm #RTEGAA https://t.co/ziWTtauVgP pic.twitter.com/E4hXyA1IDc

Limerick's most recent defeat also turned out to be Dowling's final game in a green jersey. What happened?

"Maybe I was the problem," he jokes.

"There was a lot of talk about the four-week break [from the Munster final] but I think maybe we just hadn't met that level of intensity throughout that year.

"It took us a bit of time to get up to the pitch of it and by the time we did they had got a bit of a lead we just couldn't claw back.

"I don’t think we were under-prepared, we were just a small bit off and they were on the money and that told.

"Declan [Hannon] got a bit of an injury early on and he wasn’t right, just a couple of things went wrong in that first 20 minutes and they penalised us."

Paul Murphy was corner-back for