Jackie Tyrrell believes that Limerick are showing signs of physical and mental fatigue after their draw with Tipperary took their Munster Championship fate out of their own hands.
Limerick were again below their best in Thurles on Sunday, although they came close to beating Tipp, only for John McGrath to convert an injury-time and earn a share of a spoils.
It means Limerick must beat Cork in their final group game next Sunday, and hope Tipperary fail to beat already-eliminated Waterford, if they are to keep alive their hopes of a fifth successive Munster title.
Limerick came into Sunday's game after a three-week break, only to produce what Tyrrell described as another "substandard performance".
Highlights of Limerick's pulsating draw with Tipperary in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship
The nine-time All-Ireland winner told The Sunday Game: "I'd say they’re a bit confused at the minute because there’s definitely signs of physical and mental fatigue with this group of players.
"You can see it in their crispness of play, balls to hand being dropped - Nickie Quaid dropped a ball today, you’d never see him doing it. There was poor shot selection, and it’s that mental baggage of constantly having a target on their back.
"Every time they play they’re targeted, you even see the rumours about Gearóid Hegarty [being dropped]. All that stuff weighs heavily on a team that are constantly trying to improve standards and win game after game and All-Irelands. It’s starting to catching up with them and manifesting in three substandard performances.
"You felt if there was going to be any chance it would have been the last three weeks. They would have had time to sit down, assess what was going on and get freshness and a bit of zip back into this team. But we didn’t see that Limerick juggernaut we’ve become accustomed to."
'They're not at their best' - Limerick struggling to find their flow, reckons Liam Sheedy#sundaygame
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Liam Sheedy said the Limerick management will be concerned by their high error count, something they cannot afford to repeat in their must-win game against Cork.
"They’re definitely not at their best," said the All-Ireland-winning manager. "They haven’t showed what we’d expect from Limerick when it comes to championship.
"They were impressive in the league but it looks as though there was a huge amount of shadow boxing going on there. Limerick did what they to do and won the league, and they looked to be finding flow, but they haven’t found flow at all in this championship. They’re struggling and making basic errors that you wouldn’t expect from this Limerick team.
"The likes of Cian Lynch, he just doesn’t look right. He’s probably still carrying a knock. And they realised today how much of an important player Seán Finn is within this overall set-up. He’s a huge loss for them.
"There were some positives for Limerick. They now have a winner-takes-all against Cork. From what we saw [against Clare], Cork are a really good team. It doesn’t like there’s much between the four teams still in with a chance next weekend."
