This was one of the best All-Ireland finals I have ever seen and, fittingly, it created history for Limerick. To win the three-in-a-row in such circumstances was an extraordinary achievement. They were challenged all the way home by Kilkenny and at the very end, the margin was shrinking and you wondered could the match possibly lurch once more.
His goal was typical. You could see that he felt it was on even before he caught the ball. He’s a superb athlete but very few hurlers could have taken on and scored that goal, and the few that could aren’t six-foot-five. Beside Hegarty, Kyle Hayes was again fantastic on the big day. His size and engine are phenomenal but he’s also such a skilful player and made that count with four points.
By half-time, Limerick were clearly the better team but weren’t leading by as much as they should have been. After all the hurling they had done, four points was an underwhelming margin. It has been a feature of their play that they close out matches well. Back in April, when Waterford shocked them with the two late goals to close the deficit, the pressure was very much on but they responded the better and won.
Kilkenny trimmed it by three and, perhaps if David Blanchfield had opted to drop the ball in rather than take his point, they might have conjured up something. Then again, TJ Reid earlier tried to improvise a goal when taking the point might have been the better option.