IT MAY NOT have been a victory but the manner in which Tipperary dug out a draw and their response to last Sunday’s thrashing by Limerick, left manager Liam Cahill in good spirits in Walsh Park tonight.
His team found a way to claw back a four-point deficit against Waterford, secure a 3-21 to 1-27 draw, and get their Munster hurling campaign up and running.
“I’m very, very proud. A tough six days with a lot of the analysis that was bandied about. Really delighted that the players and we as a group got our heads around a performance last weekend that wasn’t acceptable. Some of the analysis was very warranted, absolutely it was warranted, but some of it wasn’t.
“Really proud of the way we battled right to the end from a game that was more or less gone from us. Everyone associated with the set-up circled the wagons this week and really grateful to the supporters in the stands today, they were absolutely superb. They’ll back this team to the hilt every day once we fight. And we fought for everything today. We as a group fought and that’s all we look for.
“It’s not lost on us the responsibility we have when we put on the Tipperary jersey, when we put on the Tipperary bainisteoir bib. Tthe public needs to know that. No one hurts more than our players, than us, the people that are working behind the scenes endlessly to perform and make Tipperary people proud.
“To everybody out there, I’d just say to ye, stick with these players. We’re at a strange place in Tipperary at the moment where we have a number of players, not a lot, that are the older cohort in the twilight years of their careers, and younger players coming together and it’s a tough job to get that balance right.
“To stay competitive but also to put a really good future together for Tipperary hurling. That was my job, that was the reason I was asked to take on this job was to make sure that we start building again in Tipperary. Today we showed signs of that.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t get a result obviously. We came down for the two points. To be fair, I celebrated it as if it was a win. Really I was celebrating the fight in us, in our players in Tipperary. That’s what I was celebrating today.”
Cahill spoke about the hurt caused by last week’s performance caused and took ownership for the nature of their loss in Limerick.
“Your emotions go bananas when things go wrong on the big stage in a Tipperary jersey. We as a group never intend to not fight or die in our boots on the field. We always intend to come and make the people of Tipperary proud to look in at their flagship team perform.
“So, we took massive ownership of what happened last weekend. We had to. We own that for the rest of our lives. I own, maybe, some of my comments in the aftermath. I own that and it weighed heavy.
“We just draw a line under that now and go forward with this performance and still try and make sure that we qualify out of this province of death in Munster. Let’s see can we gather a couple more points. There
are four more still on offer.”
Cahill was delighted with the contribution of his substitutes.
“Without our bench today, we’d be going home empty-handed. The ever-warrior Bonner came on there, John McGrath was top-class, young Kenneally, Darragh Stakelum made his championship debut, he was excellent today. He never gave up.
“We have good young lads coming in Tipperary. Our U20s were phenomenal last night, and they are in a Munster final. We tend to love a good failure in Tipp. That is what disappoints me the most.
“Really, we should be priviliged in the position we are in. We are not where we want to be. Of course we want to be winning All-Irelands and dining at the top table every year. But we are where we are and we have a lot of really good people and good, top-class players fighting to achieve that and get back to the top table.”
