By John Harrington

Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy wasn’t in the mood to sugar-coat their one-point Allianz Hurling League defeat to Kilkenny in Semple Stadium on Sunday.

They’re now rooted to the bottom of Division 1A after their third loss in a row, and Sheedy felt this was easily their worst performance yet of the campaign.

“We didn’t really play as well as I thought we played the first three rounds,” said the Tipperary manager.

“I didn’t feel we got to the levels we expect, especially in the first half. We were playing second fiddle to Kilkenny for a lot of the first half.

“They had three wides just before half-time. It was one point, they could have been up four or five. Disappointed then with the first half.

“Went 13-10 down and then came with a really, really good patch. Went 15-13 up and I thought we had turned the tide. But we came up short.

“I didn’t think we really flowed today as a team. Look, we find ourselves on two points. After a great start in this league we’ve come up short in our last three games. That’s disappointing. There are still areas to work on.

“Some parts of our play I was hugely impressed with but we got to do it for longer periods if we’re going to be more competitive come championship.

“When we were two up I thought we should have been three or four up. We missed scores we generally would be chalking up on the board. We left Kilkenny in it.

“When you’ve got a team like Kilkenny, if you leave them in it they will hurt you. I thought they got two superb points from the left side.

“I thought we defended well, we played them outside, but they struck them over the bar over their shoulder – really hard scores to get. The two at the finish were enough to get them over the line.

“But look, there was nothing between us. Kilkenny have a lot to come back into the squad. We would have felt that we should have been better today. Overall, we were disappointed. That was our poorest performance today.

“What do we do? We dust ourselves down and go again next week.”

Tipperary are no strangers to narrow defeats to Kilkenny in the League, but Sheedy rejected the suggestion that fact betrays a psychological weakness in the Premier County’s make-up as far as their neighbours and great rivals are concerned.

“I don’t think it’s psychological. It wasn’t psychological last Sunday and it’s not today. The reality is that we have come short by one point. You just have to work through those scenarios. Used properly, they can be the driving force that helps us..

“We could be sitting here on six points and thinking that we’re the be-all and end-all but we’re not and we know we have a lot of work to do. Sitting on two points and propping the whole thing makes it very real for us.

“We’ve got to get back, got to get working. I’m still very happy with our overall situation. I still feel, we’ve a lot to work on for the next ten or eleven weeks and we’ll do that.”

Despite the defeat, there was one obvious positive for Tipperary to take from the match – the performance of John O’Dwyer.

He hit four really classy points from play in what was his most convincing performance in a Tipperary jersey in some time.

“There is that match practice,” said Sheedy. “Last Sunday he needed to get that game under his belt. You can’t just go out the first day and expect it to happen for you.

“That was very encouraging from our point of view. Every match you get. And we do have good guys to come back in.

“As I said our injuries are thankfully clearing up and we had our first 15-on-15 last Tuesday, the first week we had a chance to do that. We won’t shy away from the work, anyway.”

Tipperary need to defeat Cork next weekend to have any chance of qualifying for the Allianz League Quarter-Finals but even if they manage that they’ll also need other results to go their way.

If they do miss out on the knock-out stages, then Sheedy insists it won’t be a body-blow for their championship preparations.

“It’s out of our hands but if there was a year to be out of it, it mightn’t be the end of the world. Everything is changing in 2020. The league overall has been very good to us. We’ll go and play Cork next weekend and learn a bit more about ourselves and the squad.

“Whether we end up in the knockout stages or not the league from a management perspective has been hugely beneficial.

“It’s not as if we’re not showing an interest in the League. Any time you get competitive matches and we’re certainly getting them, your own internal matches take on a new importance.

“It’s a long wait out from the championship - it’s like two separate competitions. This is done by the end of March and the championship doesn’t start until the middle of May.”

“If we get to the quarter-finals (League) it’s great, if not we’ll have to manage.”