Tipperary manager Liam Cahill admitted the county was looking at a "rebuild job" after his side shipped a wretched 18-point loss at home to Cork, a result which ensured that their 2024 championship campaign will not extend beyond Munster.
Cahill's side found the net after 14 seconds and still only trailed by three at half-time but a ruinous third quarter, in which Cork rattled off 1-08 without reply saw them tail away miserably.
"That's not a reflection of the effort that has gone in with this group of fellas. Just so disappointed for the lads and everybody involved."
The sides were evenly matched until Alan Connolly's first at half-time gave Cork a boost going into the dressing room, but Cahill said Tipp were in the hunt until the third quarter blitz: "We were still very happy in the dressing room at half-time, that we were very much in the game."
"We started the second half really well but the second goal really knocked the stuffing out of us. That was the one that opened the floodgates."
The loss means that Tipp failed to win in their last six Munster SHC games, winning one of their last 10. Next weekend's game is of little consequence to Tipperary beyond finishing on a high note, though Cahill insists they will be striving to "keep Clare honest."
"These guys are hurting but we have to really focus around making sure that we come out in seven days time and protect the integrity of this competition, that we come out here and represent the jersey properly again. And better. We'll go back tomorrow night, we'll look at it. It'll make for tough viewing, 100% it will.
"We'll have to make sure we keep Clare honest here next weekend. And that we also introduce a few guys that are maybe going to be part of our squad going forward - which is now officially a real re-build job in Tipperary after today."
For Cork boss, Pat Ryan, it concluded the Munster round robin phase on a high note, following their landmark win over Limerick last weekend.
"We went at it really hard in the second half. Lads really performed well. We got what we deserved. We were delighted with it.
"If we lost last week, we weren't going to be in no position. After losing to Clare, we had two weeks of great preparation to play Limerick. We put in a great performance to beat Limerick and then needed an equally fantastic performance today to stay ahead of Tipperary.
After half-time Cork put 3-15 on their hosts and worked their way through the bench, Shane Kingston coming on to mount a characteristic scoring flurry, hitting 0-04 in as many minutes at one stage.
Ryan said: "It's not (a case of) running the bench. We have brilliant players on the sideline and they are disappointed if they aren't playing. We are only looking for opportunities to get them on."
Regardless of today's display, Cork's progression from Munster is not quite assured, with a draw in the Gaelic Grounds next Sunday, combined with a Clare win in Semple, pushing them into the dreaded fourth spot, with Waterford claiming the third qualifying spot on the head-to-head metric.
"A bit of a waiting game. But look we've given ourselves a chance. That's what we needed to do after losing to Clare."
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