Ollie Moran's memories are vague and are entitled to be.

He was barely out of his teens, in his first year on the Limerick panel, had just recovered from a damaged collarbone that had kept him out of the Munster championship and was wearing the number 14 jersey in Ennis on 5 October, 1997 as Limerick beat Galway by 1-12 to 1-9.

Moran remembers hitting at least one point, maybe two.

First season, first national final, first medal. It's not putting words in his mouth to declare that he didn't expect nine years to pass before he lined out in his second national final.

The last time they appeared in a big match? Ollie Moran's memories aren't vague. He wore the number five jersey in the All Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park on 31 July last as Kilkenny beat Limerick by 0-18 to 0-13.

A defeat but not a disaster.

Speaking to the Tribune the following week, an upbeat Moran confessed to being "an awful lot more positive" about his county's prospects than he'd been 12 months earlier.

The ball was in their court.

The qualifiers had given them a much-needed helping hand, one that it would be up to them to build on. Next time they appeared in a big match, he predicted, they wouldn't have to worry about "how to play Croke Park or what kind of studs we should be wearing".

The next big match takes place in Semple Stadium rather than Croke Park, but let that ride. Limerick are finally centre stage again. Last summer's momentum has been maintained. Between the league, the Waterford Crystal competition and tournament games, they're unbeaten this year. They downed Clare seven days ago through a cocktail of what Joe McKenna describes as "heart, fresh legs, will to win and less mileage on the clock than Clare had". Only a league semi-final, but there are very few onlys in Limerick hurling.

"Limerick can't set high targets, " McKenna, their initially reluctant manager, accepts. "We've got to start somewhere. We've got to crawl before we can walk."

Every journey begins with a single step. McKenna traces his team's first foot forward to the closing days of last July.

Croke Park played host to eight All Ireland quarter-finalists on consecutive Sundays.

Limerick were the only team who, he puts it, hadn't been there for a few years. For the management as well as the players, it was a huge day out, "a great experience". They're better equipped to handle major occasions because of it.

"We've shown that ability in the league this year. Handling the occasion. And coming where we were coming from, a lot of days have been big days."

What can he guarantee the long-suffering supporters?

Churchillian stuff. Blood and sweat from the players and the cast of thousands in the backroom. One hundred per cent effort. "Nothing less, because I know we're giving nothing less. I can't guarantee victory but I can guarantee 100 per cent every time. And once you give 100 per cent, you'll never be too far away."

Spectators for every league final since 1997, they'll treat this one with the respect it deserves. They'll take it seriously, as they've taken every match they've played this year seriously. A win, McKenna nods, would be massive.

"There are only two national titles to be won in a given year. Only one team can win the All Ireland. But a team can win both titles, one title or none. So you'd like to be able to look back at the end of the year and say you'd won a national title. Or both of them."

In all of this, Limerick's alpha can't be forgotten. They started out from less than zero, set off from the back of the grid. Their coach Ger Cunningham gives a wry smile in recalling his first training session with them.

He remembers the date: the morning of 9 March last year.

He remembers the venue: UL.

Above all he remembers the jolt to his system.

Having coached Newtownshandrum to All Ireland club success, Cunningham was accustomed to dealing with determined, self-motivated individuals. To say that the Limerick players were laid-back in comparison might be overdoing it, but certainly the same hunger and bite that gave a Newtown training session its oxygen were absent. Then again, the Newtown players had tasted success and knew its staple ingredients. The Limerick lads didn't.

Although they still don't, Cunningham can truthfully say that there is no comparison between Limerick training sessions then and Limerick training sessions now. Come to that, scarcely any of the realities that informed life with Limerick in 2005 inform it today. The management and players have created their own realities.

The selectors were only getting to know the players then. The selectors were only getting to know each other.

They didn't have the footballers to call on. The players as a collective had no experience of big occasions. They weren't winning enough of their own puck-outs. They weren't winning enough of the opposition's puck-outs.

Unsure as to what their charges were genuinely capable of, the management were frequently forced to make and mend by concocting gameplans designed to hammer away at their opponents' perceived weaknesses. (The aim in the All Ireland quarterfinal was to try and turn the Kilkenny half-backs, but that went out the window early on when the Limerick halfforwards lost their heads and, duly decapitated, went scurrying up and down the field instead of back and forth across it. ) So marked was their lack of a deadball specialist, they were nearly afraid of winning frees. Andrew O'Shaughnessy, the great green and white hope of a couple of years earlier, was at odds with his own game and nobody could work out why. And so on and so forth.

Now? All has changed, very nearly utterly.

The selectors have their feet fully under the table. The footballers are back. The players are becoming accustomed to big occasions. They're winning more of the opposition's puck-outs, according to their stats people, though still not enough of their own puckouts. Now fully acquainted with what their charges are capable of, the management have the luxury of spending less time worrying about the opposition and more time concentrating on their own strengths and weaknesses.

Mark Keane's return has solved the freetaking problem. Andrew O'Shaughnessy hit three sparkling points from play last Sunday and is the only one of today's forwards who lined out against Kilkenny nine months ago.

Brian Begley had a hand in each of the three goals against Clare, while on current form there isn't a hurler in the land who punches his weight, and well above his weight, as gainfully and entertainingly as Donie Ryan. And so on and so forth.

Above all, Limerick are learning how to win. They were a beaten team on two separate occasions in the semi-final, the first of them when trailing at half-time after hitting nine wides, nearly all of them awful misses.

Common sense suggests they'll be better off for hitting those wides, for having to climb the hill, for winning the difficult way.

Overawed by the surroundings and the day's trappings, they failed to lay a glove on Kilkenny in the first half at Croke Park last July. They won't repeat that mistake today. In the micro, overcoming the absence of Keane, who's clocked up 4-50 in their seven league outings, constitutes an obvious test. In the macro, how they'll react come the inevitable day their unbeaten run is halted will, Cunningham accepts, constitute the real test for Limerick.

"In every match this year, some individual has made a mistake, whether major or minor. We've told them it's how they respond that's important. Of course we're going to lose sooner or later, we know that. But when we do, it's how the players respond as a unit that will matter."

We know how many miles they've come since the All Ireland quarter-final. Ollie Moran couldn't have asked for more. Today we'll discover how many more they've left to go.