Lacking in spirit, fight, and aggression was the verdict of disappointed Tipperary manager Liam Cahill.<\/p>\n
Having watched his charges fall on home soil to an utterly comprehensive 15-point beating, the Premier boss sifted through the wreckage in an attempt to find cause for his side\u2019s woefully meek offering.<\/p>\n
Asked to put his finger on the complete lack of spark from the hosts, \u201cI can\u2019t really,\u201d was Cahill\u2019s reply.<\/p>\n
The 0-36 to 0-21 scoreline represented Tipp\u2019s heaviest defeat since the 15-point hammering away to Cork in last year\u2019s Munster round-robin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen any of these big teams come to town, you have to be out of the traps early. They got something like nine scores in-a-row at the start and we were chasing the game all the way from then on,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur preparation has gone really well. We trained well during the week. Disappointed with our fight and spirit, which is always disappointing to say. We just really got outfought all through the first half, and we just never seemed to be able to get a foothold, really, or a flow on the game. Only one stage in the first half where we got two scores in-a-row.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving said that, we did create a couple of goal chances and on a night when you are not really at it, them goal chances don\u2019t go in. Granted, there was a great save for one, but one hit the crossbar, and then we missed a penalty. All those things add to the tone of the evening when you are not out of the blocks early and not competing aggressively, and we failed to do that.\u201d To his conquerors, Cahill\u2019s remark was telling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThoughts of them gone away, they are from it.\u201d Meanwhile, Limerick manager John Kiely hailed the energy of Kyle Hayes on his return to competitive action after five months away.<\/p>\n
Operating from the off in his familiar left half-back role represented Hayes\u2019 first competitive involvement since sustaining a serious neck injury while on club duty for Kildimo-Pallaskenry in mid-August of last year.<\/p>\n
Indeed, such was Hayes\u2019 dominance in his pocket of Thurles that his opposite number, Sam O\u2019Farrell, was the first Tipp player to be called ashore on the half hour. Not bad for a player who, according to his manager, is still working \u201chis engine up to spec\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a serious injury. It took a lot of time to make sure that he was 100%. For himself, his energy has been great and his approach to it, he’s been very patient with it. I thought the last few weeks in training, he’s really pushed on and he was ready for tonight,\u201d said Kiely.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, it’s something he can build on. It was never about going out there to blow it away. He knew himself he was going to have to work his way into the game and work his way through the next couple of games just to get that match sharpness and engine up to spec. So for him, it’s a positive. We’ll build on it hopefully in the next week.\u201d While labelling their hosts as \u201ca bit off\u201d, the Treaty boss declared himself pleased with an opening 15 minutes where Limerick \u201cset the tone\u201d for what proved a most one-sided encounter.<\/p>\n
A 14th-minute Darragh O\u2019Donovan delivery into a three-to-one outnumbered Aaron Gillane finished with a Limerick white flag and an extension of their early advantage to eight points, 0-9 to 0-1. Gillane was the sixth name on an already busy scoresheet. That scoresheet finished with 12 names.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that’s reflective of the way we use the ball. We were very efficient in our use of the ball, but there were lots of support runners as well. We were always there for each other in the first 15-20 minutes in particular,\u201d Kiely continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got into it from the very start. Good energy levels. Accurate with use of the ball and we tried to attack the ball wherever we could. I think we got it right for much of that first 15 minutes and set a good tone for ourselves for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fairness to Tipperary, they brought a really strong start to the second-half. They got three scores on the trot. There was a bit of energy and momentum coming into their play. I thought the way we were calm, composed, and worked our way into the game in the following 10 minutes was something I’d be really happy with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been here so many times before; it is a tough place to come and get a result. I know Tipp were probably not where they would have liked themselves to be tonight, they were a bit off it, but ultimately all we can do is look after ourselves and our opening 15 minutes was very strong and set the tone for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lacking in spirit, fight, and aggression was the verdict of disappointed Tipperary manager Liam Cahill. Having watched his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1965,1128,42,43,850,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-310904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-hurling","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}