Diarmuid Byrnes said "it needed a big half-time talk" to inspire Limerick's second period demolition of Kilkenny in the All-Ireland Hurling Championship final at Croke Park.
The Cats were on top in the first 35 minutes as they took a three-point lead and had the better of Limerick in many facets of the game.
There may have been some regret at not establishing a bigger lead than 1-09 to 0-09, given the tradition of this Limerick team and their ability to fight back.
Despite the 0-30 to 2-15 scoreline, Byrnes felt Kilkenny pushed the champions all the way.
He said: "Kilkenny brought exactly what we expected. It was pure intensity. We always speak of the Kilkenny teams of the past but they are a replica and have inherited it.
"That's in their DNA, to work hard and those lads have died in their boots. We needed a big talk at half-time to get us going second half. You could see the response in the second half, it was immense.
"That's the relentlessness of Kilkenny. They just don't go away. We got a good few scores second half. We enforced our game plan and what we were trying to do. You never switch off for them."
Peter Casey pointed to Limerick’s experience having been in this situation so many times before, emphatically putting away their opponents when at times they had been on the ropes earlier in the game.
Kilkenny had no answers once the Limerick juggernaut came on after the second goal.
Casey explained: "At half-time we weren't happy with our own puck outs and their puck outs. Kilkenny were that small bit more hungry than us in the breaking ball. I think we addressed that.
"We started the second half well and Paddy Deegan's goal was a bit of a sucker punch. But listen we've been here before plenty of times.
"We have loads of reference points. I'm just absolutely delighted to get the kick out of the boys - I think we got the next six or seven points after his Paddy Deegan's goal - which is obviously huge to get back level and push on again.
"It's just the history we have. We have all grown up, being successful at underage and unsuccessful. There's been plenty of we've been up and down during our careers as well. We managed to stick together.
"It's just patience. We've all been here before. Stay patient as much as we can and hopefully things come our way.
"Our backroom team is absolutely phenomenal. I can't speak highly enough of them, guys like Paul Kinnerk. I'm not going to name everyone. It's just fantastic to see and the lads kicking on then to get over the line."
