TIPPERARY MINOR HURLING boss Liam Cahill is never afraid to express an opinion.
Last week, he accused former Premier County players of ‘failing’ the county by refusing to get involved in underage coaching.
And after Sunday’s Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor hurling final defeat to a “well-drilled” Galway, Cahill called on county board chiefs to loosen the purse-strings.
“To be fair, I was really directing that (last week’s comments) at our underage structure at U14, U15 and U16, we definitely need help in them areas,” Cahill said.
“We need help from past players, we need help from our County Board in relation to what resources and finances we are going to throw at this thing.
“I was in Holycross all day last Saturday week at the U16 tournament and was down in Fermoy the year before at the U17s.
“Other counties are throwing a lot of resources at this. Tipperary arrived there with maybe not as much backroom help as they should for an intercounty team.
“At the end of the day of if you are an intercounty set-up, whether it is U15, U16 or U17, these lads are expecting to go in at an intercounty standard.
“As well as the help from past players, we definitely need more finance and resources to throw at this thing at underage level.”
Cahill paid a generous tribute to Sunday’s winners Galway, who produced a powerful second half display to claim victory.
“Galway are well drilled, we knew that coming up,” Cahill said.
“They are not a physically big team but they are a good hurling side and they distributed the ball very well, and they have pace.
“When you come to Croke Park you have to have pace.
“We have a few fellas that are no speed merchants but they are big strong physical men with good hurling brains.
“But you have to be able to cover the ground up here, there’s no place to hide here when it comes to All-Ireland final day.”
Cahill urged his young players to absorb the hurt and bounce back as better, more experienced players.
“It is a difficult dressing room. Some of those guys there are really hurting.
“It still hasn’t sunk in with me but when I look around that dressing room and see it, it encourages me to a certain extent to see how badly the guys are hurting because it really means something to them and I am immensely proud of each one of them.
“There’s fellas in there that know they didn’t perform, that can be 50 or 60 percent better than what they showed.
“They’ll take that away and it will either make them or break them and I told them that inside.
“They must go back to their clubs as leaders, not with egos, as leaders with the experience gained from today.
“The nine (dual) players that will be here again on Sunday week for an All-Ireland football final need to bottle that, understand what it is like to feel that pain in your stomach when you have lost an All Ireland final and just convert it around and have a different feeling in two weeks time.”
