Kilkenny 2-19 Limerick 1-15:For a few moments you could have been tempted to believe. In the match preliminaries the Limerick support made itself heard in a great, ravenous roar, baying for a performance to match their expectation and hunger.
But they were silenced by a powerful display from Kilkenny, whose quality and undimmed desire turned yesterday's Guinness All-Ireland hurling final into a rubber-stamping of the champions' status as the preeminent team in modern hurling.
Brian Cody's side now stand on the threshold of the century's first three-in-a-row and the supplanting of Cork at the top of the game's roll of honour.
It was almost as if they understood they had to defuse any sense of possibility and prevent the predominantly Limerick crowd from breathing further life into their county's challenge.
Clinically and ruthlessly, the champions killed the match within 10 minutes and with it any hope the underdogs might have nurtured.
Goals from Eddie Brennan and Henry Shefflin in the space of a minute created a buffer between the teams, which was never significantly rolled back. Any time Limerick made inroads Kilkenny pushed them back to six points and frequently beyond.
Hurler of the Year-elect Tommy Walsh had another rousing match, rounding off a typically dynamic defensive display with two points.
It was such an assured and commanding performance from the champions that, without their composure being ruffled, they could afford to lose first Noel Hickey, the full back aggravating a hamstring, and then captain Shefflin, who had to go off at half-time with a suspected cruciate injury.
The depth of the panel's strength was on full view as adjustments were made all the way through the spine of the team, centre back Brian Hogan reverting to full back and centrefielder Derek Lyng moving up to centre forward.
They took it all in their stride and continued to absorb everything Limerick could devise and calmly keep the scoreboard ticking over, always that bit too far ahead of their battling but outgunned opponents.
For the match to ignite Limerick needed the good start but instead, just as in 2000 and 2002, it was Kilkenny who set about the underdogs in the opening minutes. As a statement of intent the team's top goal-scoring threats, Brennan and Shefflin, were positioned from the start in the full-forward line and with virtually immediate results.
In the ninth minute, with the champions already two ahead, James Fitzpatrick's lineball floated to Brennan, who rounded Séamus Hickey and stuck in the first goal. Within a minute Shefflin went up for a high ball, wrestled his way around Lucey and popped up the sliotar before somehow managing to get his hurl to it and bat home the second goal with all the finality of nailing the top onto a coffin.
Limerick had paid the price for lack of caution at the start. Instead of dropping back to limit space in the opening minutes and keep the match in the balance until they had settled - and certainly to prevent what happened happening so early - they hurled man on man and failed to impact up front while shipping 2-3 in the opening 11 minutes.
And when Donie Ryan dropped back from corner forward the net effect was simply to leave Jackie Tyrrell looking like he was on a driving range, pumping ball all the way back down the field, as he held his position in splendid isolation.
Limerick's defence, like the team in general, battled hard but could not cope with the switching and work rate of the Kilkenny forwards. Lucey actually beat Shefflin to the first couple of balls but such was pressure exerted on the backs that clearances were frequently fired out blindly only to be reclaimed by a striped shirt.
Mark Foley dug out ball, particularly in the second half, but in the difficult circumstances was rarely allowed much time to pick his shots.
On the other wing Peter Lawlor was in so much bother with Eoin Larkin, who hit four points in the first half, that he certainly wasn't able to maintain his recent standard of supply into Limerick's danger man Andrew O'Shaughnessy.
Lawlor was more on top of things in the second half but by then the damage was done and O'Shaughnessy, whose afternoon began ominously with a free dropped short, had been switched out to the half forwards in an attempt to get him into the game and away from Tyrrell, who had marked him firmly the odd time anything got through.
It was Séamus Hickey who had the most torrid experience, Brennan giving the teenage defender a lesson in the harsh realities of life at this level and bringing to a chastening end what had been an impressive season for the young hurler, who also took much physical punishment, though his block on Brennan in the 24th minute turned a certain goal into a point.
Led by Ollie Moran, Limerick eventually got into the match but the two goals always stood there like reinforced gates shutting out realistic hopes of a comeback. After the goals had gone in, Limerick managed to get the deficit to dip inside six points for all of an accumulated three minutes.
Aside from the pressure at the back Limerick were in bother in too many other places. Centrefield struggled to limit the influence of Fitzpatrick, who provided intelligent service to the forwards.
Brian Begley was well off his semi-final form and Limerick hardly got anything off his imposing presence on the edge of the square. Noel Hickey ruled him with an iron rod and by the time the Kilkenny full back had to leave the field, Begley had been moved out to the wing.
He had no better luck with Brian Hogan, whose centre-back duties were taken by John Tennyson.
The half-time lead of eight, 2-10 to 0-8, was complemented by statistics showing that Kilkenny had shot 12 out of 14 chances and received - much to their at-times-justified disgruntlement - only two frees against 10 for Limerick.
Shefflin didn't reappear after the break and the match had a loose quality throughout the second period. Early points from O'Shaughnessy, whose dead-ball striking was reliable after the early lapse, and replacement Niall Moran gave Limerick a good start but Richie Power - introduced for Willie O'Dwyer, whose failure to make more of an impact on Mark Foley resulted in summary replacement in less than half an hour - trumped that with three frees in the following seven minutes.
Ollie Moran's goal in the 47th minute capped a fine year and a hugely admirable display in difficult circumstances. Off a break from Begley, Moran rammed home the goal but it came at a stage when the deficit had stretched to nine.
A glimmer of hope shimmered in the last 10 minutes when Niall Moran had a chance to cut the margin to four and maybe ignite the crowd but blazed wide, and straight away Power popped one over at the other end to restore the all but inescapable six-point margin.
Brennan exuberantly flashed an injury-time point for a seven-point win to break the bookies' handicap and a 1-5 personal tally.
The whistle went shortly afterwards but the match had been over for a long time by then.
Kilkenny's Tommy Walsh collects a dropping ball despite a challenge from Limerick's Brian Begley; below left, Kilkenny's Derek Lyng under pressure from Limerick's James O'Brien; below right, Kilkenny's Michael Fennelly and Limerick's Donie Ryan lose their footing.
KILKENNY: 1 PJ Ryan; 2 M Kavanagh, 3. N Hickey, 4 J Tyrrell; 5 T Walsh (0-2), 6 B Hogan, 7 JJ Delaney; 9 J Fitzpatrick (0-1), 8 D Lyng; 13 W O'Dwyer, 14 M Comerford, 12 E Larkin (0-4); 10 E Brennan (1-5), 11 H Shefflin (1-2, one free), 15 A Fogarty (0-1). Subs: 17 J Tennyson for Hickey (23 mins), 25 R Power (0-4, three frees) for O'Dwyer (27), 23 M Fennelly for Shefflin (half- time). Yellow card: J Fitzpatrick (36).
LIMERICK: 1 B Murray; 2 D Reale, 3 S Lucey, 4 S Hickey; 5 P Lawlor, 6 B Geary, 7 M Foley; 8 D O'Grady (0-2), 9 M O'Brien; 10 M Fitzgerald (0-1), 11 O Moran (1-3), 12 S O'Connor (0-1); 13 A O'Shaughnessy (0-7, six frees, one 65), 14 B Begley, 15 D Ryan. Subs: 21 N Moran (0-1) for O'Brien (half-time), 22 J O'Brien for O'Connor (45 mins), 30 P Tobin for Fitzgerald (49), 29 K Tobin for Ryan (58), 26 M O'Riordan for Lawlor (68). Yellow card:B Geary (18).
Attendance: 82,127.
Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork).
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