Tipperary's Liam MacCarthy Cup hopes are dead and buried for another season with a game to spare in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and things could not have gone much worse.
The 2019 All-Ireland champions have endured a sobering campaign, first finding themselves on the end of a comprehensive defeat to Limerick before drawing with Waterford.
They still harboured hopes going into what was effectively a must-win meeting with Cork - who revived their own season by beating Limerick a week prior - but were absolutely hammered 4-30 to 0-21 by The Rebels.
Tipp did put up a fight in the first-half, but were then dismanteled by Cork in home comforts at Thurles with ex-Cork goalkeeper Dónal Óg Cusack pulling no punches in his assessment on The Sunday Game.
Former manager Liam Sheedy, who guided them to multiple Liam MacCarthy Cups, shared his view that The Premier County is at the end of an era.
Tipp still have to take on Clare in the final phase of the round-robin but there is certainly a cloud hanging over the senior team right now and former All-Star winner Shane McGrath has weighed in on their plight.
Shane McGrath details why Cork loss was particularly disheartening
McGrath, who won an All-Ireland medal under Sheedy in 2010, took aim at the lack of fight he saw from his county's players in what was their heaviest loss to Cork since 1898.
Speaking on The RTE GAA Podcast, McGrath stated that the defeat hurt more than normal because of how little Tipp offered in the second-half.
It was the manner of the defeat," McGrath said.
"I’ve played matches where you’re opening a field for a GAA club with two inter-county teams, and the last 10 or 15 minutes of some of those games was probably more intense than what we watched in Thurles."
'We understand losing - it's the manner of the defeats'
Shane McGrath says Tipperary showed no fight in yesterday's Munster Championship loss to Cork #RTEGAA
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He shared Sheedy's view that Tipp simply no longer have the players to compete at former heights, with a number of key men having retired in recent seasons.
"I don't want to be too critical. Who could be playing for Tipp that's not playing for Tipp?
"There are not many, everyone that should be playing is probably in there. Maybe one or two people would say there are lads from our club or lads from this club, but everyone that should be there is in there. It's not as if there are seven or eight lads that should be in there that aren't.
"I just don't know. I mean you can't keep saying it's management all the time.
"I just don't know because I'm not involved and I genuinely, hand on heart, wouldn't ask lads who are involved.
"But I suppose we were always told when you step beyond the white line, it really is down to you, regardless of what else is happening.
"It really is down to you. What you want to do and how much you want to play. And I just don't know whether we are seeing it at the moment."
Elsewhere, there is some cause for optimism with the county's minor team winning their second Electric Ireland Munster Minor Hurling Championship in three seasons against Clare.
A 2-17 to 0-16 victory has injected some much-needed positivity for the county's hurling scene after a hugely underwhelming few weeks.
