Just under two months ago, Cork were four points down against Limerick with four minutes to play and heading out of the Munster championship.

They turned it around that night in The Park and defied all predictions by beating the four-in-a-row champions for the second time on Sunday to reach the All-Ireland hurling final.

The predictions of others, of course. Cork remain second on hurling's roll of honour and their supporters were confident enough – along with Limerick’s - to sell out Croke Park for the first time in a hurling semi-final.

They haven’t brought Liam MacCarthy home in 19 years, and have lost three finals in that time, but manager Pat Ryan - a winner as a panellist in 1999 - knows better than to try to dampen expectations now.

"When I got into the job, fellas asked me what would be success," he told RTÉ Sport. "If you're a Cork man, you have to win an All-Ireland. Simple as that. If you don't do it, it's not success.

"And look, there have been fellas before me that have done fantastic things and got to All-Ireland finals and have been very unlucky in those days. But we judge ourselves in Cork on winning All-Irelands so we need to get back to that.

"The crowd that was up here, there’s going to be fantastic excitement in Cork over the next two weeks and there's going to be fantastic excitement in Clare. It's going to be hard to keep the hype down in both counties. There hasn't been a different champion since 2019.

"It would be impossible to quell it down in Cork, to be honest with you. We get confident after winning a tiddlywinks match. So from our point of view, it'll be just minding it from ourselves.

"And look, it's hard. Fellas are amateur men. They're going into schools, they're going into work, they're going into their families. But from our point of view, look, we know the job's not finished and that'll be our attitude."

It’s some turnaround to go from shipping a 16-point hammering in the 2021 the All-Ireland final to becoming the team that finally stops Limerick.

Ryan paid tribute to John Kiely’s men, who fell just two points short of forcing extra-time in their pursuit of the still elusive five-in-a-row, and said his management had been plotting to try and beat them since he succeeded Kieran Kingston for last season.

"What champions they've been. What they've given to the GAA itself, to the Limerick public. It was 1973 when they won their last All-Ireland before the lads got involved and what they've achieved, it's absolutely superb.

"They're testing all of us to get better. To bring things to a new level and raise standards both on and off the field… We were lucky to get over the line today.

"We just made a conscious effort since we came in 18 months ago that if we were playing Limerick, that we just wouldn't give them that easy opportunities"

"I think when Limerick started off, there was probably a bit of a fallacy about these big, strong athletes. They're the best hurlers in the country, they have fantastic skill levels and their 30-40 yard passes are off the charts.

"If you leave them with a spare man up, they'll just pass the ball around you. We just made a conscious effort since we came in 18 months ago that if we were playing Limerick, that we just wouldn't give them that easy opportunities.

"They got some brilliant scores. They're a brilliant team, we all know that, but from our point of view, we just needed to be more in their faces and really go man on man on them. We did that a good bit in the second half, most of the second half really."

It was a third-quarter storm that won the game for Cork as they outscored the champions 13-5 in the first 16 minutes of the second half.

"The lads were very calm," said Ryan of his half-time instructions. "We knew we hadn't got our puck-out going, we knew we weren't hitting the breaks hard enough, we knew we didn't push up on the man enough.

"If you give Limerick space and leave them have easy possessions, they're just going to kill you. And they did that at times. They nearly always win from that level but we just got a couple of scores with a couple of great balls. Mark Coleman with a great ball down along the sideline, Darragh [Fitzgibbon] with a great ball inside the square, and they were vital moments. The scores were all great, but I thought our work-rate in the second half was phenomenal.

"But at the same time, it took a couple of great defensive blocks from our own side, great save from Patrick [Collins] in the first half to get us over the line and that's testament to Limerick.

"We could have taken another couple of goal opportunities. If we want to beat Clare in an All-Ireland final, we'll have to take those chances."

Patrick Collins (L) threw his body in the way of Aaron Gillane's goal-bound shot

Cork might have been the only team to beat Limerick in Munster but they weren’t overly impressive in getting past Offaly and Dublin, with the caveat of a virus in the camp.

"I didn't have any doubt that we weren't going to perform today to be honest with you," insisted Ryan.

"You could see it in training. Obviously, a lot was made of maybe lacklustre performances against Offaly and Dublin but from where we came from after losing the first two games in the championship, that took an awful lot of energy, emotional and physical energy to get over Limerick and Tipperary.

"That Dublin full-back line, they are three full-backs that are getting into any team in the country. It [the illness] took a bit of energy. At this level, you can't not be 100%, you just cannot. That showed up with a couple of lads but we've a clean bill of health now and we're ready to go.

"So I wasn't a bit worried. Alan [Connolly] obviously was sick and we probably shouldn't have played him against Offaly. We were just trying to keep him tipping over. But we knew that he was really buzzing over the last two weeks.

"I knew our lads were going to perform today, but saying that you were going to beat Limerick was another thing. So it was a fantastic achievement."

They won't luxuriate in it for too long. There's a final to be won now.