John Kiely said Limerick's Allianz Hurling League semi-final defeat to Kilkenny ranked among the worst performances of his time in charge and warned his players that they have serious work to do ahead of the Munster Championship next month.
The Treaty won all five of their Division 1 group games but were well beaten by a Kilkenny side who conceded the first 1-02 of the game and played with a man less for almost 20 minutes but still won 3-17 to 1-15.
"It was very disappointing," Kiely told RTÉ Sport. "We had a very positive first six or seven minutes but we failed to bring the intensity of the game to the level we would be accustomed to doing.
"We made a lot of very basic errors: dropped balls, missed pick-ups, misplaced and incomplete passes. Just a lack of energy and a lack of cohesion in our performance that we were very disappointed with.
"In the second half there was a bit of a kick in us at the start but it was a very small kick. When the challenge came from Kilkenny we just didn't respond and that’s very disappointing from us.
"It’s a disappointing end to our league campaign. We came here with the intention of winning the game to go on to a league final, that was part of our preparations for the championship, and now we have been unceremoniously kicked out of it by a much better team on the day.
"There might have been eight points on the scoreboard but it was 16-20 points in reality."
"I would say in the eight years now we are on the road it would be in the top two or three poorest performances of our time"
In difficult conditions at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Limerick were held to just 16 scores and never imposed their trademark flowing style.
"The game was broken, there were 30 frees, which gives you a break in play. You probably had another 10 or 12 sidelines and 50 or 60 puckouts. When you have that many restarts in a game it's going to lack flow and energy.
"That was one aspect of it but that’s not anybody else’s fault. We have to look at our own performance and be honest with ourselves.
"That performance was at a shockingly low level from our perspective.
"I would say in the eight years now we are on the road it would be in the top two or three poorest performances of our time.
"That’s disappointing to say but it’s the reality. We have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks.
"But these boys have always shown a great deal of honesty, a great deal of togetherness and unity within the group, and they’re going to need it in the weeks ahead now if they’re going to challenge each other to prepare for the championship.
"We know it’s going to be very tough and I know these guys will be very disappointed with what happened today but in the fullness of the next number of days I’m sure they’ll have honest conversations with themselves and with each other, and will embrace the challenge going forward."
Kiely seemed to suggest that Limerick would not be appealing the red card shown to Peter Casey for an off the ball swing of the hurl at Paddy Deegan, the suspension for which will rule the forward out of the Munster SHC first-round clash with Clare on 21 April.
"I've seen it back," he said. "There’s contact there. It’s disappointing but it’s done now and we have to move on."
Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng was happy but not getting carried away despite beating the five-in-a-row chasing All-Ireland champions for the first time at the fourth attempt.
"I'm happy with the performance overall," he told RTÉ Sport. "We obviously didn’t get a good start but I thought we regrouped pretty well after that and got back into the game.
"We finished the first half pretty well and then early in the second half we lost Eoin [Cody], which asked a few questions of the players on the field, but I thought we coped pretty well then. The teams were evened up then after another while. We created a few [goal] chances today, which was important.
"It’s positive but we know it was still a good bit off championship pace. Both teams will improve and will need to improve. We’ll take the positives from it and drive on.
"It's where we wanted to be [in the final] and we’re finding out about players all the time. We have seen a good number of players throughout the league and today as well. I think we’re after finding a few.
"It’s a competitive squad and we have lads coming back so we’re in a good place. But we know we have to keep our heads down and keep working hard."
Cody received a second yellow card in the 38th minute for slapping the hurl down onto Declan Hannon's leg.
Limerick cut the gap to four points shortly after but the 23-year-old's team-mates spared his blushes by extending their lead to six before Casey followed him to the line in the 56th minute and evened up the sides.
"I didn’t see [the incident for Cody’s second yellow card] but it looked a loose hurl," said Lyng. "When you’re on a yellow card you have to be careful, particularly with the hurl. He’ll have to learn from it."
