John Kiely was always confident that Limerick could stage a second half comeback against Tipperary.

The All-Ireland champions' dreams of a first three-in-a-row of Munster SHC titles since the 1930s looked to be over when they trailed by 10 points at half-time, but a brilliant third quarter - in which they outscored Tipp by 1-10 to 0-1 - swung the game back in their favour.

"We knew we could still win the game at half-time," the Limerick boss told RTÉ.

"We just needed to get into it and get hurling, and get a few scores on the board - physically engage in the game. Once we did that we never looked back."

He continued: "Tipperary had us in real trouble in the first half. They stretched us every which way. They had an extra defender at the back and we couldn't manage it. They played the ball around really accurately and were picking off their scores from every angle.

"We were lucky that we weren't even further down at half-time. We've great faith in our ability as a team. We did a little bit of restructuring, but it was about us getting stuck into it.

"We tightened things up at the back and we committed to going for the ball. We chipped away, one point at a time, and got our confidence up. We pressed on and the lads coming off the bench made a huge impact again."

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