And that was always going to be enough to kill the Cats.
Brian Cody’s men lived with Galway’s giants for 140 minutes over the last two weekends because even though they’re smaller men, they punched above their weight in the air. Like they always do.
Padraig Walsh was at one with the sky that first day in Croke Park when he made five clean catches in the first half alone. Cillian Buckley was clawing ball out in front of him and Paddy Deegan, Joey Holden and Paul Murphy also ruled the air alongside him.
The Tribesmen may have been taller but they were cut down to size when those soaring Kilkenny warriors dived into the air and would literally not land on the grass until they had a sliotar between their fingers.
Joseph and Conor Cooney were left sitting time after time as men in black and amber soared high and scampered up the field.
Galway were more conscious of it the next day and looked like a team warned to fend for themselves under the dropping ball but Kilkenny at the very least broke even with them.
On Sunday in Semple Stadium, Limerick gave Kilkenny a cold dose of their own medicine and that was enough to see the Treaty County to their first win over the Cats in 45 years.
This time around it was the Kilkenny men who were stuck to the ground. That was only because Limerick pinned them down and never let up.
From the very moment Aaron Gillane hung in the air to leave Paddy Deegan panned out on the floor in the tenth minute of the game, the men in green laid down one loaded gauntlet and from then to minute 70 they proved that they meant business.
Nothing, nothing gives a team momentum quite like a sliotar plucked from the sky over an opponent’s head and Limerick defeated Kilkenny at their own game in Thurles.
A couple of minutes later, Kyle Hayes left Cillian Buckley rooted from a Nicky Quaid puckout before burning him with pace and splitting the posts.
The Limerick crowd went wild. From one to 15, their shoulders widened and they filled out their jerseys a little bit more. They began to realise they were made for this type of thing, they began to feel at home in the home of hurling.
It’s a rare sight to see Cillian Buckley lagging. It’s frightening for Cork, given that their half-back line is their weakest line, to see the likes of Hayes, Morrissey and Hegarty so dominant over these Kilkenny giants.
Kyle Hayes strikes it beautifully for @LimerickCLG pic.twitter.com/vLJORF8Zln
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 15, 2018
But that was how it was and Limerick said that was how it would be. Even though Richie Hogan showed it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight to catch one before losing Dan Morrissey to point, there was no way he was going to do the same again.
Because Dan Morrissey wasn’t going to take the backseat. He snatched two high hangers over the springy Hogan before the interval as he introduced the 18’600 in Semple to the Limerick cut and thunder.
Kilkenny aren’t used to this happening to them and just as it drove Limerick onwards, it gnawed away at Kilkenny’s spirit.
And Dan’s brother Tom was coming into it at the other end of the field. He’d started slow but when he got going the Kilkenny lads couldn’t live with his blend of power, pace and skill.
That pattern resumed in the second half as the sprightly youngsters sprung highest again.
Aaron Gillane remained in command of the clouds and he was always an effective out ball. Padraig Walsh never caught a ball; there’s a rare one for the Tullaroan man but Seamus Flanagan kept him too busy all day long.
These are young men but they’re big, burly men who are well able to look after themselves. From Casey to Hannon to Byrnes to Morrissey, they’ve leaders at the back. From Hegarty to Gillane to Mulcahy they’ve lads able to win their own possession. That’s crucial for any team.
John Kiely deserves credit for boldly changing what looked like a winning formula when he replaced Flanagan and Hegarty with Casey and Dowling – these two would eventually go onto win the game for Limerick with three late points between them.
It’s margins like these that games like these turn on and in Kiely Limerick have a man undaunted by the bold calls.
His team were the best of the Munster championship were it not for that no-show against Clare when it wasn’t really do-or-die for them. Now they’re heading for Cork with their heads up and their shoulders wide.
They won’t mind losing out in Munster, they’ve won that before and they’ve won it recently. Limerick are a county crying out for success on the All-Ireland stage and in this group they’ve a greater chance than ever to reach immortality.
These lads aren’t haunted by the past, they’re inspired by the present.
That’s why Tom Morrissey’s line in his man-of-the-match-accepting-interview just 90 seconds after the final whistle is a fitting way to end it.
“We’re not a group burdened by past lives,” beamed the Ahane man.
These boys’ time is now.
