Rueful TJ Ryan admits Limerick’s basic mistakes

TJ Ryan was sifting through the wreckage yesterday for positives, but first he acknowledged Tipp’s quality as well.

“We expected that, we knew that, but we also coughed up some handy scores, we made a lot of basic mistakes.

“After 14 minutes of the second half we were almost level, but then we were suddenly four points down, and they kicked on after that. For the last 17 or 18 minutes they scored about 2-11 to our two points.”

Limerick’s creditable third quarter was one of the few bright signs for the manager.

“Yeah, it certainly is. Once we got to the intensity of it, that’s what you want. Disappointing, we knew we were playing a good side, we knew what Tipperary were capable of.

“We know they’re at the very top of the scale but at the same time I thought we’d be closer to them today, I thought we prepared well. They were the better team on the day by a mile, we were disappointed with it.

“We had three wides [after the Limerick goal]. The momentum was with us at that stage, I thought we needed to get ahead and put a bit of pressure on them.

“I thought we should have had a point there to put it level and then they came down and got a goal and that was probably the finishing blow.”

The Limerick boss insisted the build-up had gone well: “I thought things were good. Training was going well — ok, we had a few injuries after the club championships, but every county has them so look, we don’t have any excuses today.

“As I say we got overrun. Their forwards got good goals at good times and killed us.”

Ryan remained hopeful of a positive reaction from his players: “At this stage last year, we beat Tipp in the semi-final and they regrouped well. Our job now is to regroup and get organised.

“We’re disappointed with today and we have to suck it up and try and get a win the next day and build momentum from there.

“We’re out of the Munster championship but we’re still in the All-Ireland championship so it’s a new championship tomorrow morning.”