Limerick v Clare might have topped Waterford's win over Cork in 2004 as best ever Munster final

WHEN Richie Hogan levelled the All-Ireland final in the 63rd minute with a brilliant point, Limerick suddenly found themselves in a position they had never been in before during normal time of their three previous All-Ireland finals — under pressure as the clock entered the red zone in normal time, and with the opposition having built up what looked like an irresistible level of momentum.

Limerick never panicked.

They immediately replied with points from Kyle Hayes, Cathal O’Neill and Conor Boylan to shove the margin out to three before Hayes was fouled for a converted free.

Gearóid Hegarty then pushed the margin out to five for Limerick’s final score.

The game was still alive. Limerick still had to see it out but that devastating late scoring burst let Kilkenny — and everyone else — know that this hurling terrain is now emphatically ruled and dominated by Limerick.

The way the All-Ireland final played out was largely a metaphor for Limerick’s season — no matter what the opposition hit them with, irrespective of how hard the punches were, Limerick just took them before unleashing a devastating barrage of counter-punches.

The All-Ireland final was one of the best ever but it still wasn’t the game of the year. In the history, rich lore and iconography of the Munster final, the 2004 decider between Cork and Waterford earned the right to be considered the greatest, certainly the best of the modern era.

That match had everything but the Limerick-Clare final in early June was such a classic that it entered that conversation as possibly the greatest ever.

It was such an epic, hard-hitting and ferociously contested battle that it also produced a standard of hurling under such intensity unlike anything seen before in hurling.

The quality was off the charts, especially when the sliotar was as precious as a bar of gold. Anytime anyone had the ball, they nearly needed an armoured car to protect it. The game certainly felt like a throwback given such a fusion of old-school man-on-man battles waged all over the field matched with skill levels that defied the logic and time in which they were executed. The electric atmosphere matched the occasion. 

The individual brilliance was heroic. Some of the scores were outrageous, especially Tony Kelly’s late sideline cut that took the match to extra-time. A score for the ages in a game for the ages.

Those two finals were the highlights of the 2022 hurling championship. It was a memorable season but, on reflection, it was nowhere near as electric or enthralling as the 2018 championship. Whether it was better than the 2019 season — the last time there had been a round-robin championship — is debatable.

The Munster championship was extremely poor in 2019 but, outside of the two Clare-Limerick epics, how good really was the 2022 Munster championship? Poor. Average at best. Waterford collapsed in their last two games, losing to Cork and Clare by an aggregate margin of 18 points.

Tipp lost their four games by a combined total of 31 points.

Cork were extremely poor in their opening matches against Limerick and Clare before recovering, albeit against Waterford and Tipp teams way off the pace.

Waterford spinning out of control was even more surprising again considering how well they had matched up to Limerick at the end of April in the Gaelic Grounds. They lost to Limerick again but they finally looked to be making up ground on the team they had chased down so hard in the previous two years, but couldn’t catch.

BACKFIRE

Waterford looked in a good position but management clearly gambled in the aftermath of that match by training ferociously hard before the Cork game. And it backfired spectacularly.

The Leinster championship was decent but it still only contained a handful of standout matches; Galway’s one-point win against Kilkenny in Pearse Stadium; Wexford’s first championship win against Kilkenny in Nowlan Park; Westmeath’s draw with Wexford.

The Kilkenny-Galway Leinster final was an average game that was mostly defined by the anticipation surrounding Brian Cody and Henry Shefflin’s handshake at the end of the match. It was bound to after the exchange between Cody and Shefflin in Pearse Stadium five weeks earlier.

It was that kind of oscillating summer. Clare never recovered from the Munster final, stumbling past Wexford in the quarter-final before crashing and burning against Kilkenny in the semi-final.

Cork’s profligacy destroyed their chances against a Galway side that had Limerick there for the taking in the semi-final.

Diarmaid Byrne’s free-taking kept Limerick in touch for much of the second half but 19 wides ultimately undid Galway’s golden opportunity to take them down.

For the third successive year, Limerick delivered their best performance of the season in the All-Ireland final, with Gearóid Hegarty producing a display for the ages the same afternoon. 

GOING NOWHERE

Nobody knew it at the time but that match was Brian Cody’s last time in charge of Kilkenny. There have been some great GAA managers, but in the minds of the wider GAA public, Cody will always be the greatest.

No manager has won more All-Irelands. Leading Kilkenny to another title on his final day would have been his greatest achievement yet. But the way in which Kilkenny pushed Limerick as hard as they did was the ideal closing testament to Cody’s greatness.

It will be strange not to see Cody on the sideline next year but there is a new narrative in hurling now. Limerick are the absolute standard similar to how Kilkenny were at their peak under Cody.

And they are going nowhere.