Kearns laments absentees for Tipp's relegation

“It has been a really difficult campaign for us and this about sums it up,” was how Tipperary manager Liam Kearns reflected on the defeat to Clare on Sunday.

“Even if we won we would have gone down as Cork won in Armagh but I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game,” he continued.

“We can’t have any complaints. We fought hard in all the matches but I’d say the amount of players we were missing told in the end. We were just lacking that little bit in every game and and it was the same here.

Tipperary were in a strong position at half time, leading by five points but allowed Clare back into the game at the start of the second half, conceding 1-5 in seven minutes, continuing a trend from the Donegal, Clare and Kildare games.

Kearns added: “We discussed it saying the first quarter of the second half was vital and we conceded 1-5 in the ten minutes after half time and that was the turning of the game really.

“We got back into it, got on top again and put ourselves three up with less than five minutes left and a bit of injury time but that was never a safe lead when they had the wind.

“It was a very open game, very attacking game. Lots of people have been looking for us to attack but you saw out there how much we conceded when we throw everything into attack.”