Having put Tipperary to bed last weekend in Walsh Park after a hard-fought 70 minutes, Waterford now march on for the most mouth-watering game of hurling so far in 2022.
The All-Ireland Champions Limerick lie in wait at the Gaelic Grounds having got back to their best form on Lee-side last weekend. Small tweaks from Kiely and Kinnerk have set Limerick once again on the path to Croke Park - albeit it, it's still too early to make such a prediction.
A poor league campaign gave non-Limerick fans a glimmer of hope. "These lads can be got it", "They've lost their edge" etc. All talk. All Bluster.
The Treaty have joined the ranks of some of the top counties when it comes to picking up silverware. Their sights have been set on three in a row and sacrificing the league campaign was a small price to pay in that effort.
Speaking ahead of the Ennis Road showdown, former All-Star and Limerick captain Ollie Moran is comfortable in the knowledge that Kiely allowed his team to shadow box throughout the league as they prepared for the round-robin Munster campaign.
"I went to a fair share of the league matches. There was a lot of people coming out of those matches scratching their head because the performances were definitely subpar. Maybe that was the plan all along and on the evidence last Sunday, maybe John Kiely and his management succeeded in bluffing us all into thinking that Limerick were in a bit of a downward spiral. But, as we saw last Sunday, it looked anything but. From a Limerick perspective, the ironic part is that I don't think Limerick were anywhere near full capacity."
While Limerick have plenty more in the tank - if Moran is to the believed - Waterford have more to offer also. A poor first half against Tipperary was remedied in the second stanza at Wash Park, but Cahill had to spring his All-Stars from the bench to get the job done. If they had started, the game might have looked a bit different in the early goings.
The two teams will now meet for what may well be a pre-cursor to the Munster final. The general consensus still points to the Deise and the Treaty being the two teams to fight it out for provincial honours. Limerick are of course looking to make it three Munster titles on the hop, as well as three Liam McCarthy's in a row also. Moran says that while we have a strong chance of seeing the sides in the final two, he does point out that banana skins can always be found scattered along the way.
"With regard to last Sunday and both their performances, you would have to say that, yeah, on-form they are certainly the two best teams in Munster. Are they going to meet again in a Munster Final? Looking at it in late April, you'd have to say, yeah."
"But teams are going to generate momentum as the year goes on and Championships don't go to form all the time. You're going to have a team who's going to rock on any given day, and they're going to upset the form book and find themselves in an All-Ireland final, or possibly an All-Ireland semi-final at somebody else's expense, so is there margin for that possibility? Absolutely."
So, what does the Ahane man think of Waterford's fight back against the Premier having trailed by four points at the break?
"What I liked about Watford was - and maybe what's been a criticism of Waterford in the last number of years - is that, you know, they have been slightly one dimensional and that there was maybe a lack of variety to their game. When it mattered most last Sunday, they altered their game to get a result. A lot of people thought Waterford were going to roll over Tipp, and it'd be a walk in the park. I think it was a really good performance to get from a Waterford perspective"
WLR will have live commentary of the match tomorrow from 6.45 pm, with Kieran O Connor and Eoin Murphy calling the action.
