John Kiely was doing his best to play down Limerick's first championship victory over Kilkenny since 1973.

The Treaty County beat the Cats by two points in an epic All-Ireland SHC quarter-final in Thurles, but Kiely was quick to stress afterwards that they had won nothing yet.

"It's a moment to savour, but there was no medal given out at the end of it," the Limerick manager said.

"There was no title given out. It is another step in our evolution as a team - am I surprised we took it? No! I was fully confident we would win this match today, I was fully confident that we were going to have a really good performance today and I was confident that those players have what it takes to keep their composure in matches where it comes down to the wire."

He proudly added: "History has no bearing on this group of players. They will never be defined by history and they are going to set their own tone and their own direction."

Kiely was already looking forward to renewing acquaintances with Cork - who Limerick drew with in the Munster SHC round-robin series - in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final at Croke Park in two weeks' time.

"We can't wait to get up there and I mean that. There will be a narrative out there based on history but do them boys worry about history - absolutely not.

"I think myself it's a 50-50 game - Cork are definitely the team with massive momentum and this season they have rampaged Munster but we do know that we haven't been beaten by them."

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