Limerick boss baffled with his side’s non-show in shock loss to Dublin

He was left looking for answers....

After taking an early, followed by the red card to Dublin's Chris Crummey, it had all the hallmarks of a procession for the Treaty men, in front of what was a sparse crowd at Croke Park.

But despite these ominous signs for the Sky Blues, Limerick boss, John Kiely, was not convinced by his team and felt that the energy levels were low.

And he was right in his judgement, as once the Sky Blues got into their rhythm and took a lead into half-time, they didn't let up.

Limerick did manage to fight back and take the lead in the second half, but the Dubs quickly put an end to it with two quick-fire goals, before showing incredible tenacity to finish out the game.

Kiely, who was magnanimous in defeat, said: "Listen, I think it’s more about the Dublin performance than it is about ours, to be honest.

"They were super. Even at 14 men, you wouldn’t have missed the 15th man not being on the field being honest about it.

"Breaking ball, they were there, their aggression levels were brilliant, they were super in the tackle, they were accurate – they were just at a higher level of performance than us today.

"They deserved their win completely and hats off to Niall and his team, they had them absolutely on the money. Congratulations to them.

"Our energy levels were that bit down, I could see it after 10 minutes, I could feel it from the group after 10 minutes.

"It's hard to know why that is because everything we did for the last two weeks and this morning would have led us to be very happy with where we were in our preparations.

"Ultimately, I think it’s not about us today, it’s about Dublin."