Limerick found another gear after half-time to see off Galway by 1-29 to 1-18 at Croke Park and collect their sixth All-Ireland senior hurling championship title in eight years.

A total of 1-23 of the Treaty men’s tally came from open play at headquarters where they led by five at half-time before blitzing their opponents after the change of ends.

Cathal O’Neill’s goal eight minutes into the second-half sent them 11 points clear and the likes of Peter Casey, Aidan O’Connor and Aaron Gillane kept the scoreboard ticking over to ensure it was skipper Cian Lynch that collected the Liam McCarthy Cup on his county’s behalf.

Aaron Niland (0-10) opened Galway’s account in the first minute of this decider with a free which would be wiped out by Gillane ahead of Gearoid Hegarty coming close to sending the sliotar to the Leinster champions’ net.

Firm favourite to be named ‘Hurler of the Year’, Hegarty’s effort in the fourth minute was turned around the post thanks to the excellent reflexes of Darach Fahy.

Limerick would hit the front for the first time through a Diarmaid Byrnes free, with two more from Niland at the other end putting the Tribesmen back in the ascendency. Adam English levelled the sides for the last time in the 11th minute, as frees from Byrnes (2) and an O’Connor effort followed.

Two more via the 20-year-old Niland (one ‘65’) brought Micheál Donoghue’s charges back to within one prior to English sending over his second and more white flags coming from skipper Lynch, O’Connor (free) and Gillane which had the scoreboard reading 0-13 to 0-8 come half-time.

Niland’s eighth point of the afternoon arrived in the second minute of the restart, but it was John Kiely’s men that firmly took control after that as O’Neill, Kyle Hayes, Barry Nash and O’Connor all sent over consecutive scores.

Tom Monaghan pulled a point a back for the trailers ahead of O’Neill’s goal arriving in the 43rd minute and more points by Casey (2) and O’Neill would make it 1-21 to 0-14 with just under 20 minutes left in normal time.

It got worse for the Tribesmen when wing back Ronan Glennon was red-carded in the 57th minute, with O’Connor (free) and Darragh Neary swapping points after.

Another O’Connor free was backed up by a Hayes point which put a dozen between the teams again and Gillane stretched the difference to 13 in the 63rd minute with his third point.

Conor Cooney (free) and Colm Molloy got back points for Galway, with the next three scores going the way of their opponents who would see David Reidy rounding off the winning tally ahead of Cooney netting a consolation penalty right at the death.

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