Limerick manager John Kiely has spoken to Off the Ball's Valerie Wheeler as he attempts to lead his side into back-to-back All-Ireland finals for the first time in 45 years.
Four weeks on from beating Tipperary by 12 points in the Munster final, in a performance worthy of All-Ireland Champions Limerick face hurling's most successful county and manager; Brian Cody's Kilkenny.
Kilkenny saw past Cork two weeks ago and much has been made of the extended break the Treaty has had and how this might affect their focus, preparations, and ultimately their game.
Kiely though has downplayed these worries, saying that taking the direct route to the semi-finals, contrary to last season, has suited them;
"We're there now. It's been quite a long road getting there but it's amazing how quickly the weeks and months fly by.
"This spell people spend most of the time obsessing about the break, we found that the whole thing really flew now by, to be honest with you.
"We gave the lads a couple of days off after the Munster final and we got back into it the week after. The weeks have just flown by, it came around really, really quickly.
"It gives us an opportunity to take a break and recover after the round-robin and the Munster Championship, that was hugely important to a lot of players, to refresh and re-set the button before we go again. We've worked really, really hard for the last few weeks to get ourselves ready, it's been ideal really."
Having never won back-to-back All Ireland's, there's a huge weight of expectation on this Limerick team to make history. This is something they're capable off and they've not just broken records over the last 12 months but done so in their stride.
The Munster Championship victory last month marked the first time since 1936 the county held the Liam MacCarthy, the National League and Munster titles. Brian Cody has said they're the best team in the country at the moment, that their form is exceptional and that facing them is a "terrific challenge."
What's perhaps even more remarkable than this team's form and performances is their ability to stay focused and keep a cool head in the height of the hype. Kiely says constant looking ahead is key;
"I don't look back very much, I don't spend very much time thinking about anything that has happened in the last 12 months, to be honest, it's been one of those periods where we've constantly been looking forward, looking to the next challenge and you know, (there's) no bigger challenge than Kilkenny in an All-Ireland semi-final so that's one clear way of getting your mind focused.
Limerick go into this semi-final hot favorites. A tag they won't be used to against a Brian Cody side. Kiely though is in no way nieve about the challenge that awaits them.
"One thing you can expect; and I expect it in spades, is the level of intensity that they play at and the work-rate they have as a team and the resilience that they have as a team, they're renowned for it and we can see it in every performance that we look at when we're analysing them.
"You can be guaranteed that you're going to get an absolutely horrendous level of intensity and tackling and they're ruthless when they get the chances upfront as well, they've scored a huge amount of scores, they're in a really good vein of form.
"It's going to take a huge performance from us to be competitive in the first instance and if we're going to try and get the result we're going to try and get the result we're going to have to play extremely well."
As Kiely prepares for a day that might well enter him into the history books he's also well aware of the gravity of the man he'll share the line with;
"Brian does his thing and I do my thing. I've huge regard for him I can tell you anyway, what he's done in the game has just been extraordinary; 22 years, 11 All-Ireland senior titles as a manager; there's nobody going to surpass that, his record stands for himself.
"His team's performances stand up for themselves and you know any day you go out against Kilkenny it's going to have to be the best possible performance just to be competitive with them."
Limerick take on Kilkenny in the first of this year's All-Ireland semi-finals in Croke Park at 6pm on Saturday 27 July.
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