It may not have been a "perfect performance" but Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng was nevertheless pleased with the way his side applied themselves in the win over Limerick, so guaranteeing their place in hurling's top flight for 2026.
The Cats withstood a rally from John Kiely's side in the second half of their Allianz HL Division 1A clash to eventually win by nine points at UPMC Nowlan Park. While the home side held an 11-point half-time advantage - 0-18 to 0-07 - that was whittled back to just four late on before TJ Reid, John Donnelly and the highly accurate Martin Keoghan (0-07 from play) all hit points to secure the win.
A much improved showing then after last weekend's loss to Tipperary, with Lyng complimenting the effort when speaking to RTÉ Sport.
"The players, their attitude and their work rate was excellent today all throughout the game," he said.
"That was really important that we showed that today. We would have been disappointed ourselves with how we performed last week. So today was more about the performance and the character that we showed was excellent."
What also pleased Lyng was how his charges dealt with the Shannonsiders' surge after the break.
"You're playing a top-class team and we know that they have threats from everywhere, but I thought we managed to just weather the storm at that stage," he added.
"It's a learning for us as well. It wasn't a perfect performance by any means, but just very pleased with our work rate all over."
After losses to Galway and Tipp on home soil, the Black and Amber boss can take something from the upturn he witnessed, while also complimenting a warrior who is still contributing much to the cause.
"We've had two losses here and obviously it was important I think that we showed up in terms of our performance. That was key and whatever about the result at the end, [though] thankfully we got the result.
"Limerick have another one next week and they might have different intentions for today, for ourselves it's just about putting in a performance and getting ready for a championship now.
"TJ (at 37, scored 0-10, 8f) has been training very hard over the last three or four months. He's performing, he's doing his bit, he's working very hard for the team and he's very selfless in that. Long may it continue."
As for John Kiely, he was left to rue a disappointing first 35 minutes.
"From the get go in the first half, Kilkenny were outworking us and we had too many unforced errors where we turned over the ball and they were very, very efficient in front of goals.
"That first-half performance just wasn't good enough and we left ourselves too big a gap to close in the second half.
"We definitely put ourselves back into the mix, and we were much, much sharper, much more high intensity, better use of the ball, and more positive in our play in the second half.
"We brought it to four, another bit of a squeeze, and we could have really put the pressure on, but they got one or two vital scores, then just to take it back out a bit too from us."
Watch Allianz League Sunday from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to updates around the country on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
