Tipperary manager Liam Cahill has pleaded with supporters to stick by the team in the wake of this alarming performance and result.
Distant second best to Clare, Cahill had sent out his team fully intent on reaching a Division 1 final but their challenge fell asunder.
He bemoaned how they were “outbattled in a lot of the physical stakes” and their scoring inaccuracy but maintained they are a work in progress worth standing behind.
“There’s great character in that room,” Cahill insisted. “We have a great mix of experienced fellas in their twilight years and some good aggressive young lads who have come in in the past few years.
“There’s a nice mix there, they’re a good tight group and we love working with them. We love coming to the training field with them, myself and Mikey (Bevans), and we’re not going to give up on them anytime soon.
“Because this is a new crop of Tipperary hurlers coming, not maybe for this year but I think in the time that we’re here the Tipp team will have transitioned fully. So to the Tipp supporters I would say stick with them. They will come right. Because what I see in training is not what transpired here today. The day they do bring their training form to the pitch, they’ll be a match for anyone.”
Cahill was most disappointed by Tipperary’s start, going down eight points to no score inside the first 11 minutes. A period of soul-searching follows for Tipperary before they face Limerick at the end of next month.
“Some of our players today when the pressure cooker was turned up fairly high, they just weren’t able to find the answers. That comes with practice. They’ll have to go away, take the lessons out of that, and work hard on it.
“We have to have quite a number of discussions as a manager and players between now and the next five weeks to really make fellas aware of where they’re at, what areas they need to improve on, and give them the support to do that.
“I have to really get behind these players now. They don’t become bad hurlers after one 70 minutes in the middle of March. Our goal was always April 28. That’s what we’re aiming for. We’re not going to hide under that today and use that as an out today, we are disappointed we didn’t perform and we didn’t give the big travelling Tipperary supporters a little bit more to go on.
“We flashed into the game for 10 or 15 minutes after half-time, we looked to be finding our way but then just lost it again. There’s a bit of work for us all to do, both players, coaches, managers, and everyone to get behind what needs to happen to have us competitive and in the right place for April 28.”
Clare full-back Conor Cleary maintained the eight-point margin at the end was harsh on their opponents. “Tipperary are a serious team. We always knew they were going to come back at us. And they did. They kind of left us in the game too, they had a lot of wides today which they won have other days. The scoreline wasn’t a fair reflection of the game, it was a lot tighter."
