A team just 'hurling in hope' against Limerick, Tipperary face 'very difficult assignment' against Waterford

Tipperary manager Liam Cahill was at a loss to explain his team’s 15-points hammering by Limerick in their opening Munster Senior Hurling Championship game.

“These boys are training fierce well, but I don’t know what’s the case with them coming to the match day field, it just doesn’t seem to be happening for them,” he said after Sunday’s game at the TUS Gaelic Grounds.

When asked about the chat in the dressing room after the game, he said it was “One of utter disappointment and disgust, I suppose, and everything else that goes with the manner of a defeat like that.

“What do you do, we have six days now to turn it around, turn the page and try and get our heads around going to a very difficult assignment (against Waterford) in Walsh Park”.

When asked what aspect of the performance disappointed him the most, he replied “Where do we start? Again, our energy levels, I just can’t understand it. We just seem to be that little bit off the pace, just looking in at a team that are really just hurling in hope.

“That’s an awful place to be when you’re coming in here to the lion’s den of the All-Ireland champions into their backyard. You need to be absolutely convinced that you’re going to take that ball, whether it be in a ruck or out of the air, whether you’re taking on your man, you just have to be so sure of what you’re about.

“But look, we’ll stay sticking with them. There are a lot of newer guys in there again today, and I suppose in hindsight we have to put real perspective on this. We made massive gains very quickly last year, we got a quick bounce, but I think it’s really coming to fruition now to everybody that this thing is going to take a little bit of time until this team totally transitions into a new, established side.

“There are a good few lessons to be learned by everybody involved to make that happen.

“There was a five or six-minute period where suddenly we went from one (point) down, two down to four or five all of a shot. You have to take everything that’s on offer at this level, and I know the wind was difficult.

“I just felt our energy, supporting the man on the ball and especially getting to breaks in the second half, there was an amount of breaks there in the second half easily picked up by Limerick around that middle area that we just couldn’t get a handle on.

“There’s no doubt we have the players, it’s just to get them all switched on on the same day is the thing. We’re going to work hard over the next couple of days to try and make that happen before a massive game in Walsh Park in six days time.

“We always felt that we were still hurling at half throttle, really. We felt we were still in the game, there were four points in it and then the net rattles with the Gillane goal, that just really sucks the life out of you. We didn’t really respond to that goal well at all.

“It’s Munster championship hurling, you have to be ready to battle. And these lads will battle, we’re not going to take this lying down.

“There are still six points on offer (in the round robin), people have to remember that. There are three big games (to come), yes, we’ll be underdogs in every single one of them.

“We’ll be going to Walsh Park next weekend to play a Waterford team that has really found its mojo now. It looks like the players have gone after a style of play that suited them really well in the past, and they implemented that really well last weekend.

“They’re a team that above all teams really don’t fear Tipperary; myself and Michael Bevans (former manager and coach) are partly to blame for that, I suppose.

“They will feel not one bit intimidated by Tipperary coming to Walsh Park. That’s the challenge that lies ahead and we just have to be ready for it. If we’re not, we’re going to be in big trouble.

“We have to bring everything to Walsh Park in six days’ time. We need to bring everything that wasn’t there today. We need to bring massive energy and aggression, and Waterford are a very athletic team. Up to 18 months ago they were branded as the second best team in the country.

“They are a serious team. The players seem to have found their style that really suits them and had them in an All-Ireland final, a semi-final, a national league final and winning a league title.

“They’re humming on all cylinders and we’ll just have to be really ready to take them on”.