As Tipperary look to recover from Munster final defeat with an All-Ireland quarter-final clash with Laois, Brendan Maher considered where the clash with Limerick went so badly wrong.
Recording four wins from four games in the provincial round-robin, even Limerick's status as All-Ireland holders didn't dissuade certain onlookers of Tipperary's marginal superiority ahead of this year's Munster final.
Convincing winners in a close affair two weeks before, Tipperary were ultimately ill-equipped to deal with the best that Limerick had to offer; 2-26 to 2-14 the largest margin by which Tipperary had lost a provincial final since Jack Lynch captained Cork to a 14-point win in the early 1940s.
"From a group point of view, we let ourselves down," Brendan Maher expressed plainly to Off the Ball.
"We didn't have the energy levels required to put in the work that we had been doing in the four games previous.
"For whatever reason, we just didn't seem to have that energy on the day of the Munster final."
Five-times a provincial winner throughout his impressive inter-county career, Maher's disappointment encompassed both a personal and collective dimension.
Attempting to figure why this aspect of their game malfunctioned as Limerick made the most of Tipperary's dip in form, the Borris-Ileigh man considered the importance of individual players taking appropriate responsibility.
"We felt like we'd let the entire group down, the guys that weren't on the pitch but have trained just as hard as us.
"So there is a bit of guilt there when you let the group down, and obviously losing a Munster final is never nice.
"We didn't feel as fresh as we could have going in to the Munster final, and that's down to individuals.
"You have to train and get in there and do the work, and we want to make sure we work as hard as we can on recovery as well."
Determined to learn from this set-back and push on for this weekend's quarter-final clash with Laois, Tipperary may yet have another chance to rectify the mistakes made in the Munster final.
"I wasn't that shocked to be honest that it is @CLGLaois we're playing" @TipperaryGAA's Brendan Maher spoke to @MaireTNC about their 'surprise' quarter-final opponents, and overcoming Munster final defeat. pic.twitter.com/fQtHK1U6pL
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) July 9, 2019
