LIMERICK BOSS JOHN Kiely labelled his team’s performance as ‘embarrassing at times’ as they fell to an eight-point hurling league semi-final loss at the hands of Kilkenny this afternoon.

Kiely felt his team had to go back to 2017, the year before their All-Ireland breakthrough, for a display as poor as what they produced today.

“I don’t think we have played as bad as that to be honest with you. It’s probably 2017 being honest about it. That’s from an internal perspective. We have to give cognisance that Kilkenny came with intent and plan, executed very well, their ball-handling skills were good. They were good in the air.

“They took their chances when they came whereas we were the polar opposite. We were poor on the ball, we were poor in defence, we were poor at the things we’re usually pride ourselves in terms of our intensity and our work rate, use of the ball, efficiency, all of the things we would pride ourselves on, we were poor. 

“I can assure you we’re not happy to be out of the league. It’s not part of any grand plan I can assure you. We were looking to come here to win our game today.

“This is not us exiting the league on our terms. This is us being kicked out of the league on Kilkenny’s terms. That’s the facts of the matter. Our performance today was embarrassing at times.”

Kiely didn’t feel there was any issues with fatigue that would have contributed to their performance.

“We have met. We’ve sat and chatted there for the last 15 minutes. There’s no excuse. Had we trained today I would have expected to get three times more out of them.

“It’s just not good enough. It’s not acceptable. We know that, they know that. They put their hand up to acknowledge that. It’s just disappointing from our perspective. We have four weeks now to go and put our shoulder to the wheel and by Jesus we have a lot of improving to do.

“”If they were fatigued they’d be fatigued in training. They don’t just get fatigued for matches. Now, I’d have to say, how many times in seven or eight seasons has it not been there? Very rarely. So, do they get a pass on this one?

“It’s not the way we operate. We don’t give each other passes. You can’t give yourself a pass at this level of sport. If you give yourself a pass you’re expecting to get another one the next day. We know there won’t be another pass the next day, it’s as simple as that.”

Limerick's Tom Morrissey after the game. Ken Sutton / INPHO Ken Sutton / INPHO / INPHO

Limerick shipped three goals in the first half but Kiely didn’t point the finger of blame solely at their inside defence.

“It is not just a full-back line issue. The quality of the ball going in is determined by the effort outside. The effort outside was abysmal. Hence, quality balls were sent in. And when you have good quality forwards, what else are they going to do.

“They are going to nail you. And we got nailed, good and proper. Kilkenny were full value for the goals they got today. Probably should have had two or three more.

“We would have preferred to have had another competitive games in two weeks time, absolutely. We will go in-house. Spaces up for grabs on this team now, that is the facts of the matter. And it is the fellas that really want to grab it by the scruff of the neck and lead it are the fellas that are going to be there.”