Jimmy Lee says the Limerick footballers are "inching through" their issues after a winless league campaign.
Too often, the Treaty have left themselves with a mountain to climb having gone in behind at half-time in all seven of their league losses.
Their manager isn't ripping up the script just yet as they head into their Munster Championship opener against Cork.
A couple of scoring forwards have returned in Danny Neville, Bryan Nix, and Josh Ryan, who kicked four pointed frees when switched into the goalkeeper’s jersey against Wicklow.
"Losing is never a happy place to be, but there are a few green shoots there," Lee said. "We have a lot of new lads coming through that have been integrated.
"We're starting poorly in games – that's the biggest thing. We're constantly chasing games, which is the problem.
"I suppose we're inching through things to change stuff. But you can't change everything and throw it all out until you see what's actually wrong with it, so we're trying to inch it forward in that regard."
Lee says he wasn’t aware of the extent of the player exodus that awaited when he took on the role last August.
Around 10 squad members have gone travelling, while five forwards were injured from the start of the year. A total of 19 players returned from last year’s panel, minus that handful who were out injured.
"Out of that, 16 were actually available to me, and then one or two more got injured during the campaign" added Lee.
"But it's no different than any other. You just have to get on with the hand of cards that you're dealt."
Neville’s return can have a wider impact, Lee believes, with the potential to mentor younger players.
"Danny has proven it at inter-county level down through the years. He has that ability.
"It's not just about the ability in game time either. He's able to teach the younger lads, which is an ability he brings with him as well.
"That standard that we need from forwards, he can show them the ropes. You need that as well."
Despite the sequence of losses, Lee says the group are in a good place mentally to tackle the challenge of Cork.
"Morale is not bad actually, to be fair to them. No one likes losing, let's be honest about that. They're not jumping out of their skins either.
"But at the same time, it's not bad. We just need to keep inching forward. We've left games behind us and that's been an issue."
He added: "There are three legs to the stool in terms of an inter-county set-up. You have the county board, the management team, and you have the players.
"We all need to be functioning together as a unit. You can't have one of us coming to the party and the other two legs not.
"To be fair, the county board are doing their bit, the players are doing their bit, and hopefully we are getting there. There are a lot of learnings going on, both on the players' side of it and on the management side of it.
"Basically, new to the job, we would have learned an awful lot over them few months of the standards that are required. We need to get lads up to that standard.
"At this moment in time, I would safely say we are not at that standard. We just need to move it quicker. It is them small one and two percents that we need to change."
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