PREVIEW: Patience will be required as Cahill refreshes Tipperary panel for 2026 assault

Ahead of the National Hurling League’s return this weekend, Liam Cahill released his Tipperary senior hurling panel earlier this week, with some big talking points coming out as a result.

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There is a big churn of players from the panel that was in place all the way to All-Ireland glory last July, with a youthful injection evident from the 43-man panel announced.

From last year’s panel, names like Conor Bowe, Kieran Cummins, Aaron O’Halloran, Gavin O’Halloran and Danny Slattery have made themselves unavailable from the outset, and when you add in players who have failed to make the cut in the form of Billy Seymour, Joe Fogarty and Davy Nolan, there is a big turnover overall.

Luckily, the talent is there to replace the bodies missing, with a big cohort of the All-Ireland-winning U20 team in place. Cathal O’Reilly, Joe Egan, Adam Ryan, Cathal English, Adam Daly and Stefan Tobin are the newest additions to the squad and have been carried into the league campaign.

Other names included after impressing in the club championship and the subsequent pre-season matches are the likes of Jack Leamy, Paddy Creedon and Kevin McCarthy, while Keith Ryan has been rewarded for his fine form throughout 2025 and beyond, which culminated in captaining Upperchurch Drombane to the All-Ireland Intermediate crown earlier this month.

The All-Ireland victory of 2025 will now be going into the rear-view mirror for Liam Cahill and his charges, and while that success was welcomed and incredibly enjoyable, Tipperary supporters will need patience in this National League for several reasons.

The players and management deservedly enjoyed the fruits of their labour over the winter, but the unavoidable delay in returning to the gym and training pitches often leaves the All-Ireland winners playing catch-up.

A cautionary tale will be Clare’s defence of their All-Ireland title last year, where they lost five of their six league games, leading to relegation, with that poor form carrying into the championship as they exited at the round robin stage of Munster with just one win to their name.

Add in the unusual nature of the Tipperary panel, which is largely in flux. The All-Ireland victory probably came ahead of schedule and that means there will be a big degree of transition in playing personnel over the course of the league, which will likely cause an uncertainty of performance, if not results, to go with it.

Undoubtedly, that is the correct course of action if the senior hurlers are to learn lessons from the previous All-Ireland win in 2019.

There will be no reluctance on Liam Cahill’s part to throw these youngsters in at the deep end, as he has shown with Darragh McCarthy, Sam O’Farrell and Oisin O’Donoghue.

Injuries will also allow for experimentation, with Ronan Maher and Alan Tynan unlikely to feature until late in the league.

Up first, the challenge of Galway has come hurtling into focus, and judging by the Tribesmen’s sharpness in pre-season, they have put in a big shift over the winter and will come into the game with momentum that will challenge the reigning All-Ireland champions.

League form has been a decent indicator of championship performance in recent years and, with that in mind, Tipp will be hoping to get up to speed quickly and find their form.

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