“There was no paint being peeled off the walls, it was very simple, very straightforward. Paul (Kinnerk) obviously speaks with the players and talks about the aspects of the game we’re not maybe executing that well, and after that we’re just asking them for an honest effort in the second half.”

John Kiely revealed what was said in the Limerick dressing room at half-time on Saturday night.

“We got the first score of the second half and built up a nice lead for ourselves. But after that to be honest with you we played second fiddle, they came at us in waves, they could have had another goal there near the finish and, you know, they were deserving winners on the night.”

Tipperary let a 10-point lead slip in Semple Stadium and Liam Sheedy was magnanimous in defeat.

“I would always say that the object is to win the league, and also to look at as many players as possible. We got a good opportunity to do both today.”

It was a good afternoon’s work for Brian Cody and the Cats.

“We introduced a few new players today and I suppose last year we worked hard early on in the league and as the championship went on, we seemed to lose our form a little bit. Having said that, we will would have liked a better performance today.”

Cody’s Dublin counterpart Mattie Kenny has some thinking to do following his team’s 12-point defeat.

“It was disappointing to lose the game. Any time you lose a game it's disappointing and particularly when we had a couple of chances to at least get a draw, whether it might have been fair on either team.”

Kieran Kingston and Cork travelled home from Walsh Park empty-handed.

“It was important to start with performance, that was key.”

Liam Cahill enjoyed his first league outing as Waterford manager.

“Since I got involved and we started training nine or 10 weeks ago, the work-rate and the attitude of the players has been exceptional.”

As expected, Brian Lohan’s Clare team proved too strong for Carlow.

“We started well enough and we thought we might be having a good day. But to be fair to Clare, this is a tough place to come for any team.”

Barrowsiders boss Colm Bonnar also gave his version of events.

“It’ll be a huge step up next week. You could even see Limerick last night in the first half again they were off slightly but they really upped the ante in the second-half.”

After Galway’s routine win over Westmeath, Shane O’Neill will be aiming to plot the downfall of his native county next Sunday.

“We just thought it was an absolutely outrageous decision.”

Westmeath manager Shane O’Brien wasn’t happy after his captain Aonghus Clarke was sent off in the first-half and Pearse Stadium.

“I thought we played some good stuff, you could see we didn’t take them for granted.”

Wexford got their league campaign underway with a 2-27 to 2-16 win over Laois and Davy Fitzgerald was pleased with his team’s performance.

“There is massive learning for us tonight and that’s the key to it, when the Leinster champions and All-Ireland semi-finalists are coming to your patch you’re going to have it tough, you’re not going to have anything easy, so we have to pull the learning out of that and then we tidy it up.”

Laois will learn a lot from playing teams of the calibre of the Model County, according to Eddie Brennan.

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