By Shane Brophy
Things can move pretty quickly in a person’s life. In the summer of 2021 when the Tipperary senior hurling managers job became available, Liam Cahill was the only name on anyone’s lips. It was hardly surprising considering the success he enjoyed at underage level, guiding Tipp to two All-Ireland minor finals, winning one in 2016, moving onto under 20 & 21 level where he garnered further national titles in 2018 and 2019.
However, two-years into his time with Waterford, the Ballingarry clubman opted to stay put with the Deise and build on his work there which saw them reach an All-Ireland Final in 2020, and semi-final in 2021, exiting on both occasions to Limerick.
It looked like the right decision when this time last year, Waterford were league champions and would go onto beat his native county in the first round of the Munster Championship. Everything looked rosy, but they failed to win another game and five weeks later they were out of the championship.
“Championship is where you are judged,” he said reflecting on his time with Waterford.
“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.”
Initially, it was thought that Cahill would stay on with Waterford but within four days of Colm Bonnar being removed as Tipperary manager, Liam Cahill was installed as his successor, an appointment as swift as Waterford’s sink in form.
It was a job he couldn’t turn down a second time, but the risk, for both Cahill and the Tipperary County Board, was the Ballingarry clubman jumping from one big job to another and whether he had the energy for it.
“For any of these jobs you have to have massive energy,” Cahill added.
“You come off a testing three weeks in the Waterford role where ultimately things didn’t go to plan it does have an effect on your 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 after the announcement 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.
“I have no worries in that regard, I am really looking forward to the task ahead and hopefully my term will be an energetic one and a successful one.”
Liam Cahill would have been well aware of what he was walking into with this Tipp job. He has worked with the vast majority of the players, going back to when he was a minor selector in 2007 and 2008 when he had Noel McGrath and Patrick Maher through to 2019 and the Conor Bowe’s and Jake Morris’ who helped win the Under 20 All-Ireland title.
Tipp were a long way off being competitive in last years championship, losing all four games with an average margin of over seven points, so a lot of work was needed but it helped that he knew most of the players.
“We are probably a bit further ahead,” Cahill said of where he sees his sides progression after the league campaign.
“The one plus myself and Mikey Bevans have it we would have worked with a high percentage of these players before and even though we didn’t prepare at the same intense levels that are required for senior hurling than at minor and under 21 level, the players know us and know what we are trying to achieve even at that early stage of their career.
“I am not really surprised that the players have hit the ground running in that regard as what we are trying to do because of knowing what we were about as a management team previously.
“It is obviously a job of work because Munster is massively competitive and as it stands last year, we were bottom of the pile, and we’ll have it all to do to get back dining at the top table. We have a nice bit done but a good bit more to do.”
Speaking at the launch of the 2023 Munster Championships, Cahill said there isn’t much pressure on Tipperary this year but in a county where the demands are always high, the honeymoon period won’t last for long. He isn’t looking for one either but admits patience will also be needed.
“I have always said that we in Tipperary are in the business of winning matches,” he added.
“Then winning Munster Championships and All-Ireland’s, 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.”
Modern Game
Even in the short time Liam Cahill has been a senior inter-county manager, the game has changed utterly with systems and styles of play now the buzzwords and while he isn’t a fan of what hurling has become, it is either get on board or get left behind.
“Long gone is the day where the full back comes out with the ball and opens up his shoulders and lands it up the field and the whole stadium erupts and everyone is delighted,” he recalls.
“But that is what happens with modern stay sport, it is evolving all the time and you either move with it or get left behind.
“There is a lot more work involved now for a manager and a coach and management team of an inter-county team versus a number of years ago as there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes, a lot of hours invested in analysis of yourself number one and then the opposition you are meeting.
“I think the players require that now, he really looks for feedback and direction. If you come into training with your hands swinging and you haven’t a plan in place, then players are putting in too much of an effort for that and will sniff you out and you’ll pay the price as a manager and a coach.
He added: “I’d love to have the time back to play in the modern game as a corner forward as we all know when things were going bad, 99% of the time the corner forward was the first lad to be called off because he might have only gotten two pucks of the ball which hadn’t been coming in.
“Now you see corner forwards all over the field and corner backs coming up the field, so it gives the players the license to do what they want but still within a system that needs to work.”
But does he feel hurling as a spectacle has been diminished by the modern game?
“It is hard to argue against that to be honest,” he said.
“But you take last year’s Munster Final and All-Ireland Final they were brilliant spectacles as well so I have a feeling this championship will be a really good championship. There are going to be a number of really good games in it.
“For all hurling people we need a good championship this year with more close games with plenty of raw emotion in them. There are lots of games coming between well-established teams in great venues that will contribute and support that so you’d be hopeful there will be some crackers to rejuvenate everybody.
“The league has led to that kind of a mindset in people who are looking at matches in February and March are drab affairs as teams are trying out players and trying different things in poorer conditions and suddenly there is a lot of analysis around it and a big thing made of it.
“Now, once the long evenings are in and the good weather is there, the game of hurling will look after itself over the next couple of months.”
First up in the championship is a trip to Ennis, a venue Cahill didn’t get to play in championship but did line out in some feverish league encounters during the height of the rivalry in the late nineties and will provide some help to what he and his charges are facing into on Sunday.
“It is a really brilliant environment from a player and spectator point of view,” he said.
“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.
“We have a number of our older and more experienced cohort that played there in 2019.
“Some of guys will have played there at underage up along in tough assignments as well so we are well aware of what Clare will bring and we have to be 100% right to get anything out of this game as it is a tough assignment.”
