Pleasing start for Cahill

By Shane Brophy

As league starts go, this was as comprehensive as they come for a winning team and Tipperary manager Liam Cahill declared himself satisfied with the twenty-point win over Laois.

“It was a very pleasing start to the league,” he said.

“We targeted coming here to our own field in Semple Stadium to make sure that we came out of the traps early and we're happy with the way we performed.”

He added: “There was a lot to like about us tonight but there were some areas of our play where maybe we over-elaborated a little bit and maybe took one or two wrong options on the ball. But we'll look at that.

“It's a work in progress every night we come to the field, we'll have more learnings from next weekend as we go along but I'm very happy with tonight's work.”

The Ballingarry clubman fielded four league debutants with Johnny Ryan starting at corner back, with Gearoid O’Connor, Cian O’Dwyer and Sean Ryan all making their league bows in attack.

“All good young men and here on their performances for their clubs and their colleges,” Cahill added.

“There are lots of lads in this squad putting up their hand for a starting place or into our match-day panel come championship.

“We've a number of other players to look at as this league goes on, that's what we'll be doing in the league, it's to unearth as many new players as we can.

“We've healthy competition at the moment but we have lots of tests coming.”

The game also saw a number of experienced players start for the first time this year, including captain Noel McGrath and Ronan Maher in his first action of the year at centre back, but the influence of Patrick Maher at full forward in the first half was noteworthy, being the creative force in the first half.

“Bonner retains all his energy and enthusiasm that he had since the first day he joined,” Cahill added.

“He's a big leader in our dressing room and he shows that on the field as well. We're very happy to get him back onto the field and get good quality hurling into him.”

The Lorrha man wasn’t among the fourteen players on the scoresheet for Tipperary which was another plus with a bigger than expected crowd of over 3,500 people, on a fine spring evening.

“It’s a good sign that fellas are trying to do the right thing on the ball and trying to play as a unit and a team,” Cahill added.

“That’s what we all aspire to as managers and players, to get a real team performance every day we go out. When you see an array of scorers like that, it definitely gives you great encouragement that fellas are playing together as a team.

He added: “This team is very much in the stage of finding its way again. We as a management team as well are doing our best to try to get the blend and the balance right. It’s a good competitive group, we have a good group of ambitious players that try to achieve high standards every day they go out. It’s exciting for me as manager with these fellas to see what more we can find in them as the league progresses.”

Cahill and his players will get a greater sense of their early season progress when they go into the bear-pit that is Nowlan Park next Sunday, chasing their first win over Kilkenny at the venue since 2008.

“It'll be a typical Kilkenny and Tipperary encounter in Nowlan Park. There'll be nothing spared by both sides and I think both players and both sets of management will be hoping to get as much as they can out of the game.” Cahill concluded.