And, to their eternal credit, the Munster champions remained in serious contention until the concession of a somewhat controversial Paddy Hogan goal deep into the closing quarter.

“I felt it was a square ball infringement myself,” commented Limerick mentor Pat Heffernan.

“But, listen we’re not going to take from this Kilkenny win because on the day we were beaten in too many positions all over the field.

“In the second-half, our wides tally was far too high and that too had an auld bearing on the overall outcome. It was a game in which we were always going to be under pressure to come out on top–we didn’t but we’re still very happy with the performance of our team throughout the season.”

Only for this year, Limerick were permitted to field senior club players, which obviously meant that the weekend defeat signaled the end of a distinguished inter-county career of multi All-Star winner Ciaran Carey of Patrickswell, himself on the shortlist to become the next manager of the flagship county senior hurling team.

The ageless Carey, who has sadly never now won a much-deserved All-Ireland medal of any kind, will still surely remember the season with a certain degree of satisfaction in the form of the marvelous provincial triumph enjoyed by Limerick.

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