Champions don’t always produce their best performance of the year in the All-Ireland final. It is not always necessary either. In 2022, Limerick didn’t have their best stuff against Kilkenny - but they still won. A year later, they were five points behind after 45 minutes and only hit top gear after that. In 2021, they blew Cork away in the last 20 minutes of the first half. Game over. Last Sunday, though, was different. For the first time this season, and for the first time in years, they produced a complete performance. They controlled everything that mattered: how they moved the ball, how Galway moved the ball and the contact zone (as they call it in rugby). It was billed beforehand as a tactical battle, but only Limerick’s tactics had any impact on the game.It looked to me as if Galway changed their approach a little from the Cork game and the Leinster final. Cathal Mannion didn’t play as deep, they didn’t get as many players back the field and they didn’t get runners off the shoulder. Did Galway make those adjustments because they believed what worked in the other games wouldn’t work against Limerick? Great teams put those doubts in their opponents. When Kilkenny were at their peak under Brian Cody, some teams were beaten before the game even started. There were days when things went wrong for us early on against Kilkenny, and straight away you’re thinking: ‘I’ve seen this play out before.’ Limerick have that power as well. When you see them in a flow, like they were last Sunday, you’re like: ‘Here we go again.’ It was Galway’s first-time playing Limerick for three years in the championship, so for a good few of the Galway players it was their first experience of Limerick in a big game at full throttle. The games they had against Cork and Dublin were no preparation for that. Galway were able to impose their shape and tactics on those teams. Limerick weren’t prepared to accept that. One of Limerick’s greatest strengths is that they don’t change. There might be tweaks here and there on a given day, but their fundamentals stay the same. It was unusual to see Will O’Donoghue pushing up as far as he did and even turning over a ball in the opposition half. Diarmuid Byrnes popped up at left half back at one stage and forced a free. Limerick's Nickie Quaid and William O'Donoghue celebrate after the match. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho On the whole, it was the same Limerick shape and system that we’ve seen a thousand times. They depended on their front eight to lead the tackling and push Galway back. That’s what they’ve been doing to teams since 2018.Some Galway players took the ball into contact, which is crazy against Limerick, but maybe they were forced into making bad decisions by the amount of pressure they were under. In the contact zone, Limerick are brilliant on detail. There was one passage of play where Galway managed to stitch a few passes together and the ball reached Gavin Lee. Mike Casey was chasing him on Lee’s right shoulder. In that situation, Lee needed to make a hand pass with his left hand, but he tried to make a pass with his hurley, which was in his right hand. That brought the ball back into Casey’s area, and he was able to make the tackle. If you watch the Limerick players, they’re incredible at getting the ball away in tight situations. They’re obviously under that kind of pressure consistently in training. The problem for Galway, and for every other team, is that they can’t replicate in training the kind of intensity they will face from Limerick. What they encountered on Sunday would have been a shock to Galway’s system, no matter how much they talked about it or how much they planned for it.Galway's John Fleming and Cian Daniels looking dejected after losing in the final. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho The longevity of the Limerick players is extraordinary. Of the 20 players who were on the field at some stage last Sunday, 13 of them played some part against us in the 2018 All-Ireland final. A lot of people would have felt this year that Limerick were creaking and that there were signs of ageing in their legs. Last Sunday’s performance blew that out of the water. The only small bit of hope that other counties have for next year is that Limerick had to dig very deep for this All-Ireland. From the pre-season Munster league in January right through to the All-Ireland final, they went out to beat everyone. They seemed to be making statements on an ongoing basis: the league game against Tipperary, the league game against Cork, the league final. They celebrated the Munster final as if they had never won anything before in their lives.After two years of defeats they didn’t expect, it felt like they were squeezing three championships into one. Going that deep again next season will be a challenge, even for this group of Limerick players.Are they better than the Kilkenny team that I spent most of my career playing against? It is hard to compare. In that era, Kilkenny won some of their All-Irelands by playing just four matches. In some of their All-Ireland winning years, Leinster wasn’t competitive. For Limerick, in the current system, they must play four games just to reach a provincial final or qualify from Munster.On the numbers, Kilkenny still have the advantage: eight titles in 10 seasons between 2006 and 2015 is an incredible record that nobody thought we’d see matched in our lifetimes.This group of Limerick players have six titles now. Is there another two in them? After last Sunday, could you rule it out? Absolutely not.