Cahill and Davy collide amid tension and barbs

Liam Cahill returns to the sideline in Walsh Park with his team in a fragile state, having received a bracing reminder of their current standing in the world.

Cahill sounded like a beaten man when speaking to reporters in the aftermath of Tipperary's loss in Limerick, a secondary school teacher at the end of his tether. A man who had just confronted the futility of his cause.

Managers sometimes slump into this despondent and fatalistic tone when their season is over. It was somewhat disconcerting to hear it after match one of a four-game series.

The Tipp manager even embraced his inner kneejerk Hogan Stand commenter by touting wholesale changes the next day.

As it was, when the team was released on Friday, it showed the same starting XV, for whatever that's worth. Either Cahill has calmed down in the meantime or this was just the usual dummy team mis-direction.

Losing away to Limerick in the 2020s wouldn't ordinarily be a cause for an emergency root and branch review. However, it was hardly peak Limerick they were facing - in the first half at any rate.

An odd hush had descended over the Gaelic Grounds in the opening half, as often happens in a game where both teams are blasting an abnormal number of wides. Limerick fans might have been accustomed to that in the before times but for current season ticket holders it wasn't thought part of the prospectus.

Alas for Tipp, they were afflicted by the same syndrome, Jason Forde missing almost as many frees as Diarmaid Byrnes at the other end, with a couple of goals chances also butchered.

Throughout it all, Cahill's reactions on the sideline suggested the riot act was recited in full in the dressing room afterwards. Photographers captured him exploding like Logan Roy after one missed