'This could be a valuable point before this round-robin is over,' said Tipp boss Liam Cahill

A mixture of relief and frustration was etched across the face of Tipperary hurling boss Liam Cahill in the immediate aftermath of Tipperary’s draw with Cork last Saturday evening, but Cahill did say he was happy to come away from Cork with something to show for his team’s efforts.

“Delighted to get something out of the game,” he said.

“I’d say it was a roller coaster to look at. It definitely was on the line anyway, trying to keep track of what was going on.

“An exciting game, a game with a lot of skill in it but also a lot of errors I suppose and that contributed to such drama. Very proud of how the Tipperary players responded to every sucker blow that came at them.

“Cork were exceptional as well; they never went away all day. We kicked on at certain stages and you could say we were nearly there. But really when you’re playing Cork, you’re never there.

“You have that feeling on the sideline that you could be hit with something. Look, when you give away four goals you probably don’t deserve to win a game either. Glad to get the draw and a point gained, that’s the way we’re thinking.”

There were immense performance around the middle third battle ground for Tipp, with Alan Tynan, Noel McGrath, Conor Stakelum and Dan McCormack all having stormers and Cahill earmarked this players for their influence.

“That’s the key line on the field (half forward line).

“Every team that has success now has a big engine area in their half forward line and we’re really delighted with how everyone battled right to the end.

“But there’s a lot of reflection to be done again.

“We came down with a real emphasis of having a really solid defensive performance and I thought we were good for certain parts of the game but just got caught through mistakes, little errors, for the first two goals.

“I’d have to look back at the last two goals to see how everything opened up for their forwards to get a run at us.

“But again, there are good learnings to be taken again and it could be a good point for us before the year is out.”

Alan Tynan put in a mesmeric performance for Tipp fans on Saturday night, scoring 0-4 from play and putting in a huge shift and the Roscrea man was hailed for his impact.

“I think everybody knows his background over the last few years when he chased a career in rugby,” Cahill remarked.

“He’s come from a professional environment and you can see that by the way he’s conditioned and the way he trains, and the way he responds to pressure.

“I’m delighted for him. He’s really excelling since he joined our panel last October.”

The big concern from the game was the ease at which Cork management to find routes to goal in different patches of the game, early on in the first half, and late in the second half and Cahill highlighted that this is an area they are constantly trying to address, with some mild improvements on show.

“It’s a testament to the Cork movement as well as a concentration issue.

“They have exceptionally quick players, you don’t need to be a genius to know that Cork have a lot of pace.

“But yeah, we did seem to get cut open once or twice, in the second half in particular, but this is still early for us as regards getting a handle on that.

“I think we improved somewhat from Ennis in that regard so we’ll have to build on it more going into the next two games of the championship.

Asked whether or not he would have taken three points from the two opening round robin games ahead of the championship, Cahill laughed and said; “With two minutes to go, I would have taken a point for definite,” he quipped.

"Three points, this could be a valuable point before this round-robin is over.”

He also praised the minority Tipperary support for travelling to the game and urged the Tipperary public to get behind his team for the game against Limerick in two weeks’ time.

"We are very happy to get something out of Cork, to come to a full Páirc Uí Chaoimh to a full house and the Cork supporters behind the team the way they were, they were exceptional today, and in fairness to the small Tipp following they were brilliant as well.

“We were outnumbered today but the small Tipp following were exceptional, and I hope the Tipp following will now start believing in this team and pack out Thurles for when Limerick visit in two weeks' time,” he finished.