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Liam Sheedy (right) with Eamon O'Shea (left). INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Sheedy backs O'Shea to shine as Tipperary manager

The 2010 All-Ireland winning boss believes his former coaching colleague has the skill to succeed in the Premier County.

LIAM SHEEDY BELIEVES his former coaching colleague Eamon O’Shea has the ‘skill’ to succeed as the new Tipperary hurling manager.

Sheedy served as boss in the Premier County from 2008 to 2010 with O’Shea filling the role of his coaching sidekick.

The Kilruane McDonaghs club man was appointed to the position of county manager in September taking over from Declan Ryan.

Despite being recognised primarily as an astute and innovative coach, Sheedy does not believe the switch to management will be problematic for O’Shea.

“Eamon has the skill to do any job. When I was there, we had three people involved with the team, myself, Eamonn and Michael Ryan. But we never looked at ourselves as managers, coaches and selectors, we just came together and did all we could for the team.

“The role won’t make any difference to Eamonn. He’s excellent what he does. He’ll build a really good rapport with the players. He has excellent back-up as well in Paudie O’Neill as coach and then Michael Ryan as selector.

“They’ll bring a huge amount to the team. Eamon will bring his own stamp to the job. I’m personally looking forward to seeing how they do.”

Sheedy remains positive about the outlook for Tipperary hurling despite the heavy defeat they suffered against Kilkenny in August’s All-Ireland semi-final clash.

“I was involved when we got a serious turn over down in the Kilkenny in the league in Nowlan Park and I was involved when we got a serious trimming down in Cork in the 2010 in the Munster championship. That’s the way with any team, there’ll be highs and lows.

“We took the low in Pairc Ui Chaoimh against Cork as a learning opportunity and I think this group will do something similar after what happened them in 2012. You don’t become a bad team overnight.

“You have to remember they won back-to-back Munster titles and this year just didn’t play for 25 minutes against Kilkenny. I don’t see crisis or anything like that.

“We won an All-Ireland minor this year. That’s very important to the overall theme in Tipperary and the 21′s were very competitive, unlucky to lose last puck of the game. There is good talent coming through, so the future is bright, absolutely.”

Liam Sheedy was involved with Newmarket-on-Fergus in the Clare county final. Pic: INPHO/Donall Farmer

Sheedy kept himself involved at the coalface of hurling this year as he guided his own club Portroe to their first ever North Tipperary divisional title and also had a role in the backroom team of the Newmarket-on-Fergus club that won their first Clare county senior crown in 31 years.

“It was very special with Portroe as we’d never won a North Tipp before so it meant a lot to do that with guys you grew up with. The work they put in for a club team was outstanding and we beat big teams like Roscrea, Nenagh and Toomevara along the way.

“It’s very special to walk back into your own parish after being involved with Tipperary. It was on a par with anything I’ve done in hurling.

“With Newmarket-on-Fergus a friend of mine worked in Bank of Ireland and was with them. He asked me to help them out. At the start of the year I was only down once a month because I was involved with Portroe.

“But as the year went on, I helped out a little more. It wasn’t a big involvement all round though. They won the Clare championship and won the Clare Cup last week against Clonlara so they had a good year.”

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Fintan O'Toole
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