Liam Cahill says his Tipperary team have a pile of work to get through to be up to speed for their Munster SHC opener against Limerick next month.
The Premier county fell to a comprehensive eight-point Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-final defeat against Clare in Portlaoise on a day when their intensity and accuracy were well off the mark.
The Bannermen opened with eight unanswered points before Tipp could respond and finished by outscoring their opponents 0-08 to 0-02 in the final 25 minutes.
"We've a fair bit of work ahead of us for the next five weeks," said Cahill.
"When the stakes go up, different players react differently. Some of our players today when the pressure cooker was turned up fairly high just weren’t able to find the answers.
"That comes with practice. They’ll have to go away, take the lessons out of that, and work hard on it.
"We have to have quite a number of discussions as a manager and players between now and the next five weeks to really make fellas aware of where they’re at, what areas they need to improve on, and give them the support to do that.
"I have to really get behind these players now. They don’t become bad hurlers after one 70 minutes in the middle of March. Our goal was always the 28th of April. That’s what we’re aiming for.
"We’re not going to hide under that and use that as an out today. We are disappointed we didn’t perform and we didn’t give the big travelling Tipperary support a little bit more to go on.
"We flashed into the game for 10 or 15 minutes after half-time, we looked to be finding our way but then just lost it again.
"There’s a bit of work for us all to do, both players, coaches, managers, and everyone to get behind what needs to happen to have us competitive and in the right place for the 28th of April."
The manner of Tipperary’s flat start left Cahill with plenty of head-scratching to do.
"Clare started the match like a rocket and we didn’t seem to have the answers.
"It was 8-nil before we knew where we were. We were struggling in a lot of areas, struggling to get to the pitch of it, and outbattled in a lot of the physical stakes.
"The start is the most disappointing thing about it all. If I envisioned anything going wrong, I didn’t envision us being eight points down and waiting until 11, 12 minutes for our first score.
"I wouldn’t have said that was on the cards coming today, with the way these fellahs trained during the week.
"Collectively, we’ll have to look at it and the buck stops with us all. We will figure it out in time for Limerick on the 28th of April.
"The day they do bring their training form to the pitch, they’ll be a match for anyone."
As for the nine missed frees between four different takers, Cahill is sure it’s a blip rather than a bigger issue.
"The narrative coming into today was who will take the frees. We still have plenty of options there, we just struck a day where everybody decided to be off on the one day.
"I still have massive belief in all my players. I can’t say that enough. It’s a difficult day out there. Conditions for the last couple of weeks and months have been horrendous but still, you can’t be leaving them chances after you.
"I’m not going to make excuses either. We’re disappointed we’re not in the League final, that’s the long and short of it really."
Clare boss Brian Lohan speaking to RTÉ Sport after reaching the top-tier decider
Clare manager Brian Lohan, meanwhile, is hoping to have Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell available for the decider against Kilkenny in a fortnight’s time.
"It just depends on the medical team, physios, doctor, to give us the nod in relation to getting them on the field," he said.
"We're hoping they will be in a position to play the next day but we'll see."
Regarding Mark Rodgers, who left the play in Portlaoise with a head injury after 20 minutes, Lohan told RTÉ Sport: "He went off with a bad knock and we replaced him straight away. We're hoping he'll be okay but I don't know how bad it is."
