After beating Tipperary last month, Paul Browne said there was no chance they were going to be found wanting in the final stretch.

He said: "This goes back to two years again when they caught us in the last 10 minutes. We vowed that they’d never do it again and last year it happened and this year it happened again.

“We know the strength in character inside in the dressing room and there was no chance we were going to let it slip when we were that close to it with 15 minutes to go.

“We always knew we were fitter and stronger and we’d drive on. We had everything in the tank we needed to drive on and we proved that.”

O'Mahony is more measured than that but acknowledged their lack of fitness had cost them in the past. “Focusing on ourselves again doesn't mean that we won’t be found wanting. Whether it is good enough or not, you won’t know.

"A couple of years ago, Tipp pulled away in the last 10 minutes and that was something that we were in control of and we weren’t fit enough. Ultimately it let us down.

"If you are going to let a controllable like that let you down you are not putting yourself in a position to win. I feel you are working hard enough that we can last the 70 minutes."

The amount of character Limerick have built up in the last couple of seasons is also standing to Limerick, says O'Mahony.

"It’s the workload that they put on themselves. They work extremely hard - that has helped to raise the whole bar. There is a core group there that go over and beyond. When you work that hard at something, whether it’s in sport or in your job it pays off. You get results for it.

"That’s a message we are driving through, that if you work harder than everyone else hopefully that will be good enough to get us over the line."

Being Munster champions has taught Limerick a world of lessons and it is also one of the reasons why they are wary about Cork given they have played two more games in the run-up to Sunday.

As O'Mahony said, citing last year's All-Ireland semi-final loss to Clare: "I wouldn’t read into the whole occasion or the fact that it was Croke Park. I felt that the gap between a Munster final and an All-Ireland semi-final was new territory completely for us and we failed to handle it.

"We couldn’t get a challenge match because teams were either gone out of it or still in competition. We need games like that to sharpen us up. You see that with Cork this year. They have three games played and they have sharpened with each game."