Limerick are All-Ireland champions, after beating Galway in a dramatic final, but once again hurling was the real winner. Even when the game is bad the sport's ability to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear is unrivalled.
In a summer of comebacks, the Tribesmen nearly pulled of another Houdini but fell just one point short. It was more than enough excitement for the neutral and after the match on Sky Sports, Jamesie O'Connor was emphatic in his response to Rachel Wyse, when asked if this was indeed the best hurling championship he can remember.
Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. From day one: Dublin/Kilkenny, Wexford/Kilkenny, Cork/Limerick, Clare/Tipp, Cork/Tipp - you could keep going ... the quarter-final, the two semi-finals, the replay...
It just showed that there was absolutely nothing between any of the teams in this year's championship and for Limerick to do it as it as they did, with eight games to win it, that's unprecedented. For Galway it was their ninth game and maybe it was a bridge too far but Limerick are deserving champions and I think it will be all the sweeter because of how hard they had to work to win it.
His colleague, Ollie Canning was no doubt disappointed his own Galway could not pull off back-to-back titles but he was full of praise for Limerick, acknowleding the benefit of having another team at the top table.
For the health of hurling you need new teams coming in, it's great. Galway would have loved to win back-to-back, we didn't do it but Limerick will enjoy this victory. They need to go and build, and now it's going to be Limerick trying to defend their title next year; a very very hard thing to do, as we've seen over the last couple of years.
Limerick's Shane Dowling also had a superb post-match interview on Sky Sports, which you can watch here.
Also Read: Shane Dowling's Post-Match Interview Was Worth A Lifetime's Wait
Also Read: The Five Players Who Influenced The All-Ireland Hurling Final The Most
