Cahill points to mindset for Tipp’s poor campaign

By Stephen Barry

At the close of Tipperary’s 2026 championship campaign on Sunday, senior hurling manager Liam Cahill addressed media questions for 17 minutes, covering a wide range of topics from All-Ireland title defences to anonymous online critics, team selection, player welfare, championship structures, and performance reviews.

It was an open reflection on what had been an All-Ireland title defence that was disappointing to say the least, culminating in a seventeen point loss to a hungry Limerick side.

He began with a personal tribute to Tipperary trailblazer Liz Howard, who passed away last Thursday, describing her as “a very glamorous, courteous, supportive woman, and a straight shooter, which is why we got on so well”.

Cahill framed the discussion in terms of her great saying: “There's no person bigger than Tipperary.”

As he tries to “make sense of 2026”, Cahill pointed to All-Ireland title defences being “more difficult” and referred to ensuring that “our mindset is in a better place when we approach what needs to be done for 2027”.

He later attributed the slower return to pre-season and mixed league form for leaving them “not fully ready to go to war against Cork”, while the Waterford draw was the “dagger” to their hopes.

The 48-year-old commended his players for being “really proper Tipperary people all week” in their approach to the Limerick dead-rubber.

“That first half of hurling, there was a lot to like about us, even though we gave away an early goal,” said Cahill.

“The boys showed great resilience and fought to the bitter end, which I'm immensely proud of them for. These boys in Tipperary, they owe me nothing. They're a really great bunch of people to be working with and I'm just so disappointed for them because of the effort they put in.

“And when things happen like this in Tipperary, there will be fairly sizable post-mortems around what has worked and what hasn't this year to see can we improve for 2027. There’s none of us shying away from that.”

Cahill went on to shield his players from anonymous online accounts.

“We all have to be really mindful that these players are amateur players,” he said.

“They're getting a fair bit of criticism by a lot of platforms, especially nameless ones which are easy to hide behind.

“Even some nameless platforms that use the Tipperary logo and use titles like ‘Premier’ this and ‘Tipperary’ that. Really, they're not Tipperary people. They're a joke, actually.

“I'm really disappointed that our so-called own would revert to that kind of scrutiny of players that put their hand up to play for Tipperary.

“It just creates a narrative and creates that extra little bit of pressure on us all.

“I'd really love to know these people behind these faceless accounts. Have they child welfare courses done? Garda vetting done? Are they training under-10s and under-8s in their own clubs? Are they even club members? They're probably not.

“I'm not going to be able to stop them saying what they say, but I just ask them to be mindful, especially of their players.

“I don't care what they say or write about me, but just be easy on them boys because they are our players and we need to look after them.”

Cahill then defended the strength of Tipp’s memorable All-Ireland triumph.

“Some people have come for this group, which is terribly unfair because All-Ireland medals are hard won.

“I've said this to the players several times, All-Ireland medals don't come in lucky bags. There are some pundits, analysts, and former players out there that would hope that they did come in lucky bags, but they don't.

“Whoever will win the All-Ireland in 2026 will have earned it, just like Tipperary earned it in 2025, and Clare the year before, and that's just the way it is.

“We'll lick our wounds, we'll do what Tipperary people do, and we'll come back again.”

Cahill repeated his warning against people getting “ahead of themselves” when it comes to Tipp’s underage talent pipeline.

“I was told we got a little bit of criticism over the team we named. Why didn't we go with a full youthful team?” he continued.

“Had we loaded that team with more under-20s, it could leave scars that’d be there for a while. It's so competitive and so ferocious out there, it takes time.

“We need to be sure that we have the patience, which is something we're not really blessed with in Tipperary at times.”

Noel McGrath received a standing ovation on his exit from the field, and Cahill said: “Noel will be given the opportunity, like he's been given every year during my term, to make up his own mind because that's how good a player he is.”

Cahill was keen not to be seen as “crying over being out of the championship in May” when answering a question about the compactness of the season.

“I've been criticised before for saying that we're not giving player welfare enough attention,” he began.

“I don't know what the answers are, but all I do know is that there's so many matches that these players are not machines, they're not professionals. Yet they're playing in front of packed out houses creating huge revenue.

“They pull a hamstring in the morning, six weeks gone, and their year is over. There doesn't seem to be any real thought put into how we can make sure that our best players can perform regularly on the big stage without that duress.

“Today is the first day that you could walk the sideline in a t-shirt and the weather is really conducive to proper championship hurling and a couple of the big teams in Ireland are out of the championship.

“I know the club scene is everything, and I believe that, but for young boys and girls to be inspired, they have to see their county players regularly on the big stage. The window is closed now.

“I think Peter Queally said there's not an ice cream licked in Waterford and they've gone out of the championship. There'll be less licked in Tipperary and we're gone as well, but that's just the way it is.

“We'll have the whole summer to reflect on it in Tipperary and see can we come up with the answers.”

Looking ahead to the off-season, Cahill said: “There'll be plenty of reviews.

“The county board will do their job. They're really supportive of all teams in Tipperary and it'll be their duty of care to get in behind it.

“I'll have some uncomfortable meetings with them. They'll ask the questions that they're entitled to ask and we'll see what answers we can come up with and go from there and hopefully improve things. That's the plan.”