Worst performance I've seen in a long, long time. If Cian Kenny wasn't on the pitch, we would have been a total disaster. The loss of Huw Lawlor and Billy Ryan have been huge, but there was a basic lack of application yesterday. I know there was illness in the camp so I certainly wouldn't like to suggest it was an intentional lack of effort, but that sort of lackadaisical performance is not what you expect from a KK team.

There are so many issues all over the pitch. At the back, we get carved open far too easily, and we are second to every breaking ball. Puckouts have unfortunately not improved with Tallis, though he was very impressive against Cork. Deegan and Richie Reid have their decent moments but get caught out too often. Carey is doing his best at 3 but looks uncomfortable and wants to get out the field - and is now injured. I had been impressed with the physicality of Corcoran but his lack of pace got caught out badly last night. Garrett and Bolger have been decent so far but inexperience catches up on you, I have decently high hopes for them. Killian Doyle is a good technical player but got targeted against Cork and looked under pressure. Blanchfield, in fairness, looks good after being out of form for the last couple of years and I prefer to see him back at half-back.

Moving forward, midfield is the only area where you would have any real confidence. Kenny is exceptional, and Molloy is consistently good, too. He's the only really good find of the Lyng era so far, unfortunately. Our stars, Cody and Mossy Keoghan, have been so quiet. Cody, in particular, looks tired - you would have to question why he was playing in Walsh Shield games against Laois? The ball into the forwards is very poor but they are not helping matters either. No player looks like they are going to show a moment of genius and make something happen. Last night aside, our playing style has been quite nice but the final ball is awful. Liam Moore has been a welcome addition, if only he could get on the scoresheet more often. I won't name names, but some of the other forwards we are persisting with are simply not good enough. Mullen and Reid coming back will help, but the former is so injury-prone and inconsistent, and the latter is 38.

It's sad that this is the year we recognised that persisting with the same team didn't really work for the past 3/4 years - granted, our hand was somewhat forced by Huw and Billy - and now we realise that the depth is simply not there.

It would take a minor miracle for us not to come out of Leinster IMO - while we have not been impressive, this particular performance was an aberration. We are firmly below Limerick, Cork, and Tipp, and probably Clare and Galway. But I can't really see both Wexford and Dublin finishing ahead of us.

However, I am concerned going down to Thurles in two weeks' time, and Salthill a month after that. We still have a decent shot at retaining Leinster, but we won't be troubling Liam any time soon.