Shane McGrath believes complacency might have set in for Tipperary against Waterford and expects Liam Cahill to get a reaction from his players in the preliminary quarter-final against Offaly.
The Premier County came into the final round of Munster as the sole unbeaten team in the province knowing only a defeat of five or more points and draw between Cork and Limerick could eliminate them.
It was apparent from early on in Semple Stadium that winless Waterford were up for it and Tipp fans were left anxiously checking the score from the Gaelic Grounds as the Déise closed out an unflattering six-point victory. One more point for Cork and it would have been the end of their season.
Speaking after the game, Cahill said: "I can't stress enough how disappointed we are for the Tipperary public today to witness a lot of basic errors on our behalf and it is something myself, Mikey [Bevins], the management, and the players are really going to have to man up and get sorted out before we can say that we are serious All-Ireland contenders."
McGrath, who was taken by Davy Fitzgerald's tactics of 'short' puckouts to the 45 and playing goalkeeper Billy Nolan outfield as a sweeper, told the RTÉ GAA Podcast: "It was a total domination by Waterford. With 12 minutes gone Waterford had had 11 shots at the goal and Tipp had no shots from play at that stage.
"They got their tactics spot on. Taking chances, it worked yesterday.
"In fairness to Liam Cahill, he came straight out and said, 'we are not using tiredness as an excuse' and you can’t when you see what Limerick did.
"They were playing the same game as we were. Cork and Clare played the same game last week, high-intensity, hits. Full-tilt stuff.
"The human side of players. I could be totally wrong but I think maybe the mentality for Tipp yesterday was, ‘unless we’re getting absolutely hammered and it’s a draw in the Gaelic Grounds we’re still going to be in the championship'.
"Whereas in the Gaelic Grounds, it was do or die, if you don’t win you’re gone.
"Maybe that mentality does seep in a small bit and that mental toughness isn’t there."
McGrath was part of a Tipperary team that lost by 10 points in Munster to Cork in 2010 but went on to stop Kilkenny's drive for five three months later.
He hopes that the current crop can similarly use a disappointing display as motivation for the remainder of the championship.
"Tipp got destroyed but it's a great stick for Liam Cahill to beat them with.
"I’m sure they’ll even have a chat tonight to say, 'where are we going from here? It will be a bit of soul-searching for the next couple of days.
"I was part of a group in 2010 that got annihilated down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. We had an honest discussion about what went wrong. We took ownership, the management took ownership and we got a good run then in the qualifiers.
"That's what Tipp have to do now. They’ll expect to win against Offaly.
"I think they'll get back on the horse, get the boys back [the injured Cathal Barrett, Jason Forde and Jake Morris] and be ready to rock in a few weeks’ time. It’s all knockout hurling now."
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