Kiely: We had to be six points better to win by one
After wrestling back the Munster crown, Darragh O'Donovan did his best Graeme Souness impression, planting a Limerick flag on the Páirc Uí Chaoimh turf.
Fortunately, he didn't spark the same scenes of civil unrest that 'Souey' did in Istanbul three decades ago.
It remains to be seen whether this will be seen as a historic insult or a desecration of the sod. The Cork players were at that point still busy soliciting answers from James Owens.
Perhaps the footage will be taken up to Cork's psychology unit, used to whip the Downey brothers into a frenzy ahead of a potential future meeting.
Limerick had claimed the bragging rights and some of their supporters were anxious to exercise those rights.
"Excuse me, Munster champion coming through!" cried a fairly sozzled Limerick supporter after he was held up by the tea cart on the train as it rolled towards Charleville. We're not sure if this is the kind of post-match behaviour that Caroline Currid would endorse. (The lady wasn't terribly impressed and the chap had to wait). But it was a reminder of what it is to be a Limerick fan nowadays.
Limerick's transformation into consummate winners is such that it's hard to remember that they were not long ago regarded as perennial hard luck merchants.
The fatalism that accompanied them en route to their first All-Ireland title is a distant memory.
They've won seven of the last eight Munster championships. The same number of Munster championships that they won between 1956 and 2018.
John Kiely was in positively beatific mood as he spoke to the press after Limerick had regained their Munster crown in a game which did not meet the approval of the purists.
Sean Finn and Adam English embrace after full time
For Kiely, the latest victory over Cork in a big championship game was reminiscent of the first of his reign back in the 2018 semi-final, even if that seemed an overly flattering assessment of Sunday's encounter.
"It was a rollercoaster game. It actually had characteristics of 2018. From the point of view that it was just so tight and it was the smallest thing that was going to shade it," was Kiely's assessment.
"And Peter Casey, like in 2018, turned up with a couple of big plays towards the latter end of the game when it mattered most."
It was the 17th victory from 18 major finals since 2018, the odd one out coming on penalties last year.
It was a game that Limerick trailed for all of 63 minutes, from Alan Connolly's seventh-minute penalty until Gearóid Hegarty fired over the equalising point as second-half injury-time loomed.
The clock was past 70 minutes, when Casey managed to reverse out of contact, having being refused a possible free, before drilling over the lead point. He popped up a minute later to put them in front again after Alan Connolly had levelled the match.
In between, they had butchered a clatter of score attempts, both high and low. Aidan O'Connor missed three highly scoreable frees, Aaron Gillane was held scoreless, while Patrick Collins made a series of saves in the second half.
Despite it all, Limerick held their nerve. For Kiely, it was the accumulated experience of all those final victories that told in the end.
"We've played in a lot of really tight Munster finals, particularly against Clare. Really, really tough battles.
"So, they have a lot of reference points. When you're out there, I don't know does it mean a whole pile really! Because you're just living from play to play.
"They held their nerve. We spoke about being calm in the chaos before the game. I thought we showed great composure throughout the game. Because a lot of things didn't go for us today. Our shooting was a bit off. We'd a couple of goal chances that didn't come off.
"We just had to keep battling and battling and battling, and try to win enough ball to get enough shots - we probably needed to be six points better than them to win by one. That's the facts of it.
"It was a very, very stressful game. There was so much happening. It was frustrating at times because I knew we were getting plenty of ball but we just weren't converting enough of it into scores.
"And if you don't, you're going to get caught. We got caught here two years ago in Round 3 of the round-robin.
"We were the better team on the night. But we just didn't close out the game. Cork did. That was one thing we didn't want to see happen today."
Kiely had spoken during the week of his empathy for referees - in light of his own bruising experiences officiating in-house games - and how he was these days anxious to help referees and co-operate with them. This coincides with a new rule where backchat from the sideline can result in a free being moved in front of the goal.
Ben O'Connor took the view that his opposite number hadn't quite lived up to these lofty sentiments in the heat of battle.
He took issue with Kiely's energetic lobbying of the sideline official and the pair had words just before half-time and again after the match.
In the afterglow of victory, Kiely wasn't inclined to be drawn into any back and forth.
"There was just one or two pieces where 'Hego' [Gearóid Hegarty] got caught with a piece of contact in the tackle. Got a yellow straight [away].
"And we had a couple where we felt there was contact but there wasn't the same penalty. That was all.
"Listen, everyone fights their corner outside there. That's just the way it is.
"And in fairness to the lads, refereeing out there on a day when there's so much happening is a tough, tough job."
Gearóid Hegarty forces home Limerick's first half goal
The Limerick manager made a big call to whip off Aaron Gillane after 50 minutes to go, during which time the four-time All-Star had failed to score.
"Do I back off it? Do I back off it and have the regret later on? The group is the group. The team is the team. It's not about individuals.
"He had his opportunity. I don't want to go home regretting that I didn't use more of the lads that are behind me, that have played well in training.
"Is Aaron inside there disappointed he was taken off? Of course, he is deep down disappointed he was taken off. He would like to have contributed more. He would have probably thought that he could contribute more.
"It's a shared load. You don't count the games you play. You make the minutes you're on the field count."
Has the pain of last year's failures propelled Limerick's resurgence in 2026. Kiely insists their motivation isn't built on past failures.
"If you're going to depend on results that went against you back 12 months ago to drive you forward today, that's not going to last," says Kiely.
"What's going to sustain us next week? What's going to sustain us the week after?
"We won't have a reference point to look back on for that. We gave our best last year. It wasn't good enough, and we moved on from it.
"Today, it was about being a better team than we've done in the past eight months.
"And we are a better team than last year. We've worked harder. And that's why we're here."
