Limerick were well off the pace as Wexford secured a 1-19 to 1-12 win to conclude their league campaign.
Speaking to Sporting Limerick after the game, it's safe to say Limerick manager John Kiley wasn’t happy with the performance. However, they weren’t going to blame playing four weeks in a row after the original game against Kilkenny was cancelled and refixed for St Patrick's Day.
"That’s being kind,” Kiely said.
“It was a very poor performance. It lacked energy and intensity. We made a lot of unforced errors. We lacked flow and patterns in what we were doing. To be fair to Wexford, they brought intensity and were full of energy and life. They should have won by a lot more. I don’t know how many wides they had. Their performance was full value.
There are a lot of different factors in the four weeks in a row. I'm not looking for excuses, especially for that performance, but four weeks in a row has been a challenge for us regarding the number of players we had available, injuries we picked up and changes to the team. You name a team, and then two days later, you have a completely different team.
It's been frustrating and difficult. I suppose when you have that many games, it's hard to get clear water, and you don’t get time to have a break to keep your head above water.
Listen, we have a month to get ready for the 20th of April, we're going to need every minute of it. We probably have one of our greatest challenges ahead of us because a performance of that magnitude will not win or even put you in a competitive space for a championship match."
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Ahead of the game, there were late changes, with David Reidy and Declan Hannon dropping out of the side while Mike Casey was forced off before the break. However, Kiely was quick to quieten down any seriousness to the injuries.
“David got sick during the week,” Kiley said.
"With Declan, his leg was sore after Thursday night, but you won't risk it if it isn’t right.
It’s just a dead leg. We have to see how long that will be. It's better than a torn calf, hamstring or quad.
It’s just niggly nits, two in, two out. It's been a revolving door for the last month. We're looking forward to a consistent block of training for the next four weeks where we can build for the championship. We're going to need all those days; I can tell you that for sure.”
He also said that Kyle Hayes missed out because of an injury to his hamstring.
A warm-weather training camp that the squad is attending during their four-week break will help the Treaty men jump-start their championship prep for their opening game against Tipperary.
