Person of the Year accolade is presented to Tipperary senior hurling manager Liam Cahill

Tom Sherlock, the President of the  Tipperary Association Dublin, presented the Person of the Year for 2025, at an Awards ceremony held in Dublin, to Liam Cahill who led Tipperary to the “Holy Grail” in 2025 by winning the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.

In a citation at the awards ceremony held at the |Louis Fitzgerald Hotel  Tom Sherlock said The Tipperary Association Dublin was delighted to honour Liam Cahill as  Person of the Year 2025.

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"Liam needs no introduction. There is absolutely no doubt that everyone in this room, regardless of age, ethnicity, or gender, knows that Liam Cahill is the Manager of our 2025 All-Ireland Championship, Tipperary hurling team.

Liam took over the Manager role in July 2022 at a time when Tipperary were playing second fiddle to Clare, Cork and Limerick in Munster. He quickly set about putting a plan in place to bring Tipperary hurling back to the top. He assembled a squad of players and a management team focused on that goal.

Not surprisingly, success didn't come instantly. There were some disappointing results, especially in 2024 and there followed intense scrutiny and even some criticism as a result. Liam, his management team, and the players knew they were on the right track and stuck to the task. Some new players joined the squad and different team and positional selections were trialed during the National League campaign. The result was the creation of the panel of players who performed so valiantly in the final, gaining a famous victory over the hottest of favourites, Cork. I will never forget the atmosphere in Croke Park that July Sunday afternoon when hope at the throw-in turned to absolute joy, especially in that astounding second half when all the hard work of previous years and months paid off and our heroes triumphed in style.

For that one occasion alone, Liam Cahill, as manager and conductor of that mighty orchestra, deserves the accolade of Tipperary Person of the Year for 2025. However, Liam’s involvement on the coaching and management teams stretches as far back as 2007, when he was part of Declan Ryan’s backroom team when Tipp won the Minor Hurling championship. In 2013 he took over the role of Manager of the team and won Minor Munster Championships in 2014, 2015 and 2016, as well as the All-Ireland title in 2016. He also managed the Tipperary team that won the All-Ireland under 21 hurling championship in 2018 and followed that by guiding the Tipperary team to win the inaugural Munster and All-Ireland under 20 Hurling Championship in 2019. He has the unique distinction of having managed All-Ireland winning teams at Minor, Under 20, Under 21, and Senior levels an achievement which will never be matched.
Liam is, of course, a successful hurler in his own right and holds County Championship, Munster and All-Ireland and National League medals and an All-Star Award.

Tipperary’s success in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship this year must stand as one of the great achievements in Tipperary hurling. Drawing with Limerick in Thurles, when we saw the first green shoots. This was followed by a win in the cauldron of Ennis, when the game seemed lost, victory over Waterford and a controversial loss to Cork. The team was through to the All-Ireland series. Following a victory over Laois, a semi-final win over our neighbours and great rivals, Kilkenny, brought anticipation and excitement to a new level for Tipperary. There followed that day of all days, when we headed to Crokle Park with a mixture of hope and trepidation and floated out on Cloud 9, celebrating a famous victory.

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More often than not, Managers are held responsible for the failure of their teams, rather than given the credit they deserve when their teams are successful. We need only look across the water at the English Premiership to see how precarious the role of Team Manager can be. It is with the greatest of pleasure that the Tipperary Association, Dublin, applauds the role of Liam Cahill in assembling a backroom team and a panel of players and in making the hard decisions that resulted in Tipperary being crowned All-Ireland Hurling Champions last July.

Liam is a most worthy winner of our Person of the Year Award for 2025," he concluded.

The Award was sponsored by Louis Fitzgerald of the Fitzgerald Group.