Limerick wing-forward Gearóid Hegarty felt that his side were on an upward curve throughout their victorious All-Ireland campaign and knew that the Treaty County would save their "best 'til last".
And so it proved in Sunday's showpiece as John Kiely’s men romped to an 11-point victory, beating Waterford to secure the 2020 SHC All-Ireland title at Croke Park.
The St Patrick’s clubman was in scintilating form in the final as he hit seven points from play to help Limerick secure their second title in three years, while Hegarty was also named man of the match.
Fellow wing-forward Tom Morrisey was also in contention for the individual award, however, Hegarty’s second-half display ensured that the RTÉ panel were in agreement by the final whistle.
"It’s incredible that we’ve won an All-Ireland in December," said Hegarty, speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game.
"But it’s a bit bittersweet that we have no fans here to celebrate with us. They waited a long time to win an All-Ireland and we did that in 2018 but they want more and we wanted them to see another one.
"The important thing is that once you go over that white line nothing changes, that’s where the battle was won and we did our job today and got it done."
This Limerick team came through together following the Under-21 success in 2015 and Hegarty felt that his side battled together throughout the campaign, knowing that every game would be a challenge with each one leading to the promised land of Croke Park.
"We know each other inside out at this stage," said Hegarty. "You don’t get to an All-Ireland easily, we had to battle through every match.
"We judge ourselves internally on our own performances and we were happy enough getting to the final.
"We knew we were on an upward curve and we knew we were going to save the best ‘til last, and thankfully we performed to the best of our ability."
The 2020 campaign will forever be known for the impact that the coronavirus had on the country, which was duly acknowledged in captain Declan Hannon’s post-match speech.
And Hegarty admitted that he found it challenging to remain motivated throughout the Covid crisis, but kept going at the prospect of winning a championship at Christmas.
"I found it incredibly hard during lockdown to keep the training going.
"There was no light at the end of the tunnel and we didn’t know if the championship was going to go ahead.
"There were ifs and buts and the one thing that kept me going was ‘imagine winning an All-Ireland at Christmas time, how good Christmas would be’, so I’m going to look forward to the next few weeks."
