'It will come right, it’s going to take a bit of work', says Tipperary hurling manager Liam Cahill

Liam Cahill says he will be “rigorously going through the club championship this year and will definitely freshen up the (Tipperary hurling) panel for next year”.

He says he will “looking at young talent that’s out there to bring them into an environment that has the culture required to play for Tipperary, and hopefully deliver silverware in time.

“We’ll go back and we’ll find the right players and make sure that we have the players ready next year when we kick off everything again”.

The manager said he was bitterly disappointed after his team’s defeat by Galway in Saturday’s All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship quarter-final and it clearly showed, as he struggled to put into words the reason for his team’s poor performance when he met the media after the game in Limerick.

“You never mind getting beaten but when you get beaten (when you’re) not firing, the way you know what you’re capable of, it makes it that bit harder to swallow,” he said.

“We just didn’t spark at all today. For just some reason it was a bad day to decide not to turn up.

“We seemed to be labouring right through the game, and yet gave ourselves a chance with seven-eight minutes to go, when it was back to a point. But we continued to make unforced errors and even that aside I suppose we were lucky to be only a point behind with eight minutes to go.

"I suppose only for two or three great saves we would have been in bigger trouble. All in all it was a really disappointing day”.

When it was put to him that the team’s energy levels seemed to be low from the start, he sighed and said “I just don’t know. "The lads in fairness to them have prepared really well. They looked really sharp on Thursday night, we did very little from the Offaly game (the previous week). I’m so disappointed for the players, the effort they put in. When you take over a team of any grade at any level you become emotionally involved. And emotions are high here now.

“I’m really disappointed for everyone involved in the set-up. We never questioned the players’ heart or fight or endeavour. These boys will fight to the end. We discussed how we were to play and some of us went away from it, and when you go away from the way you’re meant to play and the way it’s laid out for you it’s so disappointing from a manager and coach’s perspective.

“I know pressure and intensity in a game does that. These boys came through three or four massive and intense games. No disrespect to the game today but (those were) encounters that were a lot more intense than today’s game and we just failed to execute what we spoke about and went through.

“Look, we’ll go back and do what all Tipperary people do. We’ll dust ourselves down, we’ll take the criticism that will come. We know that criticism will come, that’s part and parcel when you’re involved in an inter-county set-up like Tipperary and we’ll go back to the grindstone, myself and the management team and we will make changes.

"We will have to go about putting our own stamp on this. We’ve done reasonably okay to date, getting to the quarter-final of the championship”.

When asked about the trend of the game that saw his team knocked back by a Galway score or the concession of a free anytime they tried to get going, he said “That’s what happens when you’re chasing something and your energy isn’t there and you’re only hurling in hope. Those things happen when you’re not fully firing together across the lines and linking the lines and defending together and attacking together”.

Was there a sense of fear in their hurling, with some players afraid to make a mistake?

“They’re Tipperary hurlers. Tipperary hurlers don’t hurl with fear. They’re born for days like today to express themselves, so we need to look at that, and we believe we’re giving them the tools and the training to do that, so we’ll just keep doing what we believe will work.

“It will come right, it’s going to take a bit of work. Days like today put you back to the grindstone again, and you have to go at it. That’s what we’ll do as a management team”.

When asked what the message at half-time was, he said “We addressed a couple of tactical issues we felt we had addressed before the match. Galway played exactly the way we spoke about. Because of our lack of energy we didn’t seem to squeeze the way we committed to.

“I just said at half-time that I felt I was looking at a team I couldn’t recognise, and I asked the players to come with something in the second half and in fairness they did, they came with everything in the second half. But again, real good teams, when given a half-chance like that, and Galway gave us a half-chance against the run of play and we failed to capitalise on it, that’s the most disappointing part. And as poor as we felt we performed we could have still got something out of the game”.

He agreed that progress was made during the year but added, “We’re in the business of winning. I hope that I’m not coming across as a sore loser. I’m not but when you manage and play for Tipperary you expect to win, and you expect to win playing with a bit of identity.

“Our identity wasn’t there today, and I’m not heaping the blame on the players, it’s just days like that..we had the last round of the Munster championship (when they were beaten by Waterford) as well.

“I’d love to be able to get the answers for it, but I think answers might have to come from within rather than outside, so we’ll try and find those answers as the winter approaches.

"We have plenty of time to do it now anyway, that’s for sure”.