Seeds of Limerick's dominance sown by Cork missionary

For a long time it wasn't much of a rivalry at all. Before John Kiely took over Limerick, the counties had met 65 times in championship, Cork winning 44 (67%) and their neighbours 16 (25%), with five draws. Even four wins to the Rebels' two over the triumphant last seven seasons has taken Limerick's overall winning record to just 28%.

Historically, the fixture lacked the competitive spice of Cork v Tipperary or Limerick against Clare as the men in red had held the upper hand since the heyday of Mick Mackey.

When The Treaty won Munster in 1980 it was their first provincial hurling final victory over the Rebels for 40 years and first in championship at all since 1971.

That also stopped the first Munster six-in-a-row - until last month - but it took another 14 years for Limerick to get the better of their neighbours again, which they did twice en-route to losing All-Ireland finals in 1994 and '96.

Limerick were one-point winners in the 2001 provincial quarter-final but Cork reeled off another four victories in a row until 2013, when they came up against a team managed by one of their own.

John Allen on the sideline with Cork in 2005

Aghabullogue's John Allen came on as a sub and scored against Limerick in the 1976 Munster final but was concentrating more on the big ball by the time his county men went awry four years later. He was later full-forward on the team that beat the Kerry footballers in 1983, having lost the previous eight provincial deciders.

Allen was a selector with Donal O'Grady when Cork gained revenge over Kilkenny in the 2004 hurling All-Ireland final and in the hotseat when they retained Liam MacCarthy the following year. He stepped down after the Cats denied them three-in-a-row and that seemed to be that, for