LEAGUE PREVIEW: Tipperary hurlers face into massively important League campaign

Twelve months on from monsoon conditions on a horrible night in Portlaoise in the first round of last year’s Allianz National Hurling League, the O’Moore men will this time travel to FBD Semple Stadium this Saturday to face Liam Cahill’s charges in the 2023 version in the opening round of the Allianz National Hurling League.

In what is a most unusual occurrence at this level, two men from the same club will face off on the sideline, with Willie Maher bringing his Laois charges to town for the 2023 opener, and is in similar fashion to his fellow Ballingarry man Cahill, in his first year in charge and attempting to rebuild confidence in a squad which suffered a torrid league and championship campaigns in 2022.

The horrible conditions and putrid spectacle which was served up in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise last year had a large element of foreboding for both Tipperary and Laois and it served of a taste of things to come for Colm Bonner and Seamus 'Cheddar' Plunkett; with the latter leaving at the end of last year after failing to prevent Laois from dropping into the Joe McDonagh for 2023.

However, there is a sense growing around the county that Tipp are starting to crawl out inch by inch out of the mire from the annus horribilis that was 2022 with some encouraging performances in the three Munster Hurling League games.

Two losses out of three might have supporters on the fence about just how much progress can be made with just a single win out of three attempts, but the way in which the team has hurled looks to be lightyears ahead of what we seen at the same point last year; and all this with an amount of new personnel and positional experiments.

The biggest question for Liam Cahill from this league campaign will be how he wants to approach in terms of performances versus results.

Wins have been a rare commodity for the senior hurlers in the last year or so, and confidence you would imagine will be crucial for this group of players going into championship.

On the other hand, there are still an awful lot of unknowns as to how the Tipperary team will take shape, with so many new faces being introduced over the course of the pre-season hurling games, while there has been sparse minutes given to the more experienced player so far.

It may be that Cahill will have to target specific games to accommodate these different approaches, and he will be hoping that his side can get the ball rolling quickly in the right direction against Laois this Saturday afternoon.

With the Fitzgibbon Cup in full swing with two rounds played so far, and a final round to come in the middle of next week, there may be a few players involved in these games not getting a start, or at least, many minutes in this one, with Alan Tynan (TUS Midwest) and Paddy Creedon (MTU Cork) unlikely to feature ahead of do-or-die clashes next Wednesday.

The University of Limerick and Mary Immaculate College contingent will be available as they have byes in their groups having played two games already, so we can expect a fair cohort of the likes of Gearoid O’Connor, Bryan O’Mara, Rhys Shelly and Johnny Ryan to be available without worry over over-stretching the minutes.

It might be the best fixture for the re-introduction of Seamus Callanan, Niall O'Meara, John and Noel McGrath to get minutes under their belts over the course of the 70 minutes, while there is good news for supporters with the news that Ciaran Connolly is expected to feature in the league campaign after recovering from a persistent injury, while his namesake Eoghan Connolly is also ready to go after missing the pre-season games, so this might be a good opportunity to get minutes into the legs of the young pair.

Whatever the team, a result and a performance to boot is a must here for Tipperary with tougher games to come against Waterford, Kilkenny and Dublin, while they will also face a Darren Gleeson led Antrim in the final game in Corrigan Park in Antrim.

Here’s hoping for a positive 2023.