One close match and one not-so-close was a reasonable assumption ahead of what Dónal Óg Cusack dubbed a 'hurling nations fiesta weekend', aka the All-Ireland semi-finals.
Though few would have guessed Limerick and Galway would be the tighter contest, the 52,215 at Croke Park - almost 13,000 more than for Kilkenny’s stroll past Clare – certainly got their money’s worth yesterday. Especially after the favourites had eased into an early five-point lead.
Treaty manager John Kiely is now preparing for a fourth All-Ireland final in five years but he looked understandably drained after his champions were given a stern test by Galway.
The Tribesmen, improved beyond all expectation from an unconvincing win over Cork, led twice in the second half before Limerick finally found a way to spoil their party.
"It was a tough battle," admitted Kiely. "We got off to a good start - probably too good a start if you like, we were in flow very early, but that flow got disrupted obviously.
"Galway got back into the game, settled, started getting some fluency going themselves, and it was nip and tuck. A really tight game, and ultimately it came down to that final quarter, and we won the final quarter. That was the vital part."
Limerick cruised to Liam MacCarthy glory last year. The only time they looked remotely threatened was at half-time in the Munster final against Tipperary, and they won that game by five despite conceding a late goal.
2022 is a different story. Clare ended level with them twice after 70 minutes. Galway could have won if their shooting was more accurate. Either the opposition have raised their game or Limerick are not quite clicking as they can, despite still doing enough to get over the line.
"Every day we go out the kitchen sink is fired at us and whatever is left over is fired at us as well," said Kiely. "We have had to stand up and take whatever has been fired at us all season long and that’s just the way it is and I don’t see it going to change.
"But I know that every day our boys have stood up and withstood everything that was fired at them. They showed great resilience, determination, composure, calmness and an ability to see out the game so I’m worried about nothing.
"I don’t think we worked quite hard enough today. When we look back on it during the week our work rate will be just down a notch or two, and it’s something we’ll be disappointed with. We turned over too many balls in the tackle, and that’s our fault. The tackle is the opposition’s responsibility but holding onto the ball is ours when we have it, and we coughed up too many balls in the tackle.
"We were up against fantastic opposition, real, top-quality opposition. We have to respect that. If that challenge wasn’t there, we wouldn’t be saying that we were disappointed with elements of our game. "
Kiely didn’t hesitate to use his bench after Limerick went 17 minutes without a point from play at the start of the second half.
Seamus Flanagan, Tom Morrissey and Gearóid Hegarty were all taken off as the returning Cian Lynch, Peter Casey and, particularly, David Reidy made an impact.
Kiely insisted that even with just two weeks to the final there was still time for someone to force their way into the starting line-up.
"If a fella is disappointed after his performance today, he wants the battle in training next Friday night, next Sunday, next Tuesday week. He wants that because he wants to fight for his own place and he wants to fight to get himself to the level where he knows he's prepared for the game that's coming.
"He [Reidy] is exceptionally consistent in what he does coming off the bench for us, it’s something we value highly in the group. All the bench - he got three points I know but there was an assist there from Cian, Peter came on, got some vital possessions, Conor Boylan came on, broke a tackle, got a vital possession.
"They have a chance now. Those vital pieces that they gave us today in terms of a couple of possessions, a couple of assists, tackles, all of those bits and pieces were valuable to us in that period of time they were on the field.
"Whoever finishes it doesn’t matter, it’s who does the work before that, but they gave us the energy. I think we were the team with the energy in the last eight to ten minutes."
If their opponents so far have been throwing the kitchen sink, then Kilkenny are likely to lob the bath. The Cats were the last team to beat Limerick in championship, all of 15 games ago. Is there now an extra layer of motivation to the three-in-a-row tilt?
"There's not really to be quite honest with you," said Kiely, who claimed he hadn’t watched the Cats cakewalk against Clare yet.
"All we're worried about is the game this day two weeks. The game that you're referring to was three years ago. We can't change the past, by God we can influence the future.
"I didn’t watch it. It was irrelevant to me until we got through today so there was nothing to be gained from watching it. Better off to walk the dog. We’ll watch it tomorrow, definitely, and maybe when I get home tonight."
Some video homework and a selection dilemma for a three-in-a-row final. There are worse things to wake up to of a Monday.
