Tipperary boss Liam Cahill says he’s stuck to his principles ahead of the Championship and hit out at “lazy analysis” of his Waterford team last year.
Twelve months ago, Cahill led Waterford into the Championship as League champions and they were tipped by many to be Limerick’s closest challengers but despite an opening win over his native county, it all unravelled from there as they lost their remaining three games and were eliminated.
In July, he vacated the Waterford post after three years and was swiftly appointed in Tipperary having turned them down a year earlier.
Cahill went gung ho for the League again this year, with Tipp winning all five regulation games before putting it up to Limerick in the semi-final, though they were eventually swamped in the second half.
Ahead of his second stab at the Munster round robin as a manager, starting against Clare on Sunday, Cahill said: “There has been a lot of analysis done on Waterford last year because of winning the League but not progressing in the Championship. It is intense, everyone knows that.
“For me, I am not changing a whole lot. Myself and Mikey Bevans have continued to do what we believe in. We will continue to stick to what we believe will work. Again, not trying to give a soft answer, the end of the Munster Championship will prove whether we got it badly wrong last year or not.
“That was a really good League final last year in Thurles in front of a big crowd.
“I suppose, you have to hold your form through the Munster Championship, that’s the reality of it. Championship is where you are judged and people’s memories are short too, that Waterford team were ultra-competitive for the last three years and a lot of it was lazy analysis.
“People didn’t really scale back and look at what these guys had achieved but the whole thing came unstuck in two or three weeks, that is all. Some of the analysis was unfair on what the players had achieved and where they had come from over the previous three years.”
Managers moving from one county straight into another is relatively rare though Cahill says he found it to be “an easy transition”.
“For any of these jobs you have to have massive energy. You come off a testing three weeks in the Waterford role where ultimately things didn’t go to plan, it does have an affect on you energy-wise.
“Having said that, when the opportunity came and I was approached by Tipperary knowing what happened in the past as regards not taking on the role, energy levels rose very quickly so it was an easy transition for me after a couple of weeks.
“When a guy can get his head around picking the people and putting the right structures in place, it works seamlessly enough after that to get back the energy levels required to drive a high performance environment like this day in day out.”
Tipp open their Munster campaign with a potentially pivotal tie in Ennis against opposition that beat them convincingly in Thurles last year.
“We have a number of our older and more experienced cohort that played there in 2019.
“While I didn’t play Championship in Ennis myself, I did play two rounds of the League in my time and they were packed houses and is a really brilliant environment from a player and spectator point of view.
“It is very intense and Clare pride themselves on performing and winning in Ennis. The supporters row in behind that too and make it a tough environment for the opposition.
“We’ll discuss that and will be aware of that.”
Cahill guided Tipp to All-Ireland under-21 and under-20 success in 2018 and ‘19 respectively though the core of those teams have yet to hit their peak as senior hurlers, something which he says must be borne in mind when setting expectations.
“It is long-term for a number of players that are on the panel. I have always said that we in Tipperary are in the business of winning matches, and then winning Munster Championships and All-Irelands, that’s what we grew up on and is what we try to aspire to every day we go out.
“I am not for one second saying that we are not going out to try and win whatever silverware is on offer.
“There are quite a number of new players that, however good they are now, will be a lot better in two or three years’ time.”
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