Barrett winning race to return against Clare

By Shane Brophy

All-Star defender Cathal Barrett is set to be fit for the start of Tipperary’s Munster Senior Hurling Championship campaign against Clare.

The Holycross/Ballycahill clubman has missed the last two months through a shoulder injury sustained in the round 2 National League game against Kilkenny but speaking at the launch of the 2023 Munster Championships at Pairc Ui Chaoimh last Wednesday, Tipperary manager Liam Cahill was optimistic about Barrett’s chances of making the Ennis clash on April 23rd.

“Cathal should be fine fitness wise,” revealed the Tipp boss.

“It is just about getting him back into match-based scenarios and hopefully we’ll get a couple of good in-house games into him before Ennis.”

However, it is looking increasingly unlikely that experienced duo Seamus Callanan and Niall O’Meara will be available for the first round.

“Seamie is progressing nicely” Cahill added. “We haven’t pressed the button on him yet to see how he is reacting. It’ll probably be a race against time for Ennis.

“Niall picked up an injury in an in-house game during the week, a set-back which we are monitoring. Regardless of the injury, Niall wouldn’t have had much game time or intensive training under his belt to put himself in the reckoning for Clare. It’s an ankle injury which will take around three weeks before he can go back in angled running and contact. It’ll be another two weeks to get up to match-pace hurling so we are looking at the Cork game at the earliest for him.”

After their National League campaign was brought to a shuddering halt by a strong second half performance by Limerick in the semi-final last month, the Tipperary manager admitted there were issues highlighted in that game that Tipperary are focusing on as they build up to the championship.

“We have to really address how teams change their formations in certain periods of games and how we need to work together in tandem to counteract that. There is a good bit of discussion to be had,” he revealed.

“We have to park Limerick until May and look forward to Ennis where Clare will bring threat to the way they play, and we have to be ready for that.”

While disappointed not to have gotten to a league final, it has provided Tipperary with a four-week run-in to the start of the championship and that key first round game at Cusack Park.

“Not getting to a league final will allow us to get one or two more intense training sessions in,” he revealed.

“There are really only eight or nine collective sessions anyway between the league semi-final and the first round of the Munster Championship so there is not a lot you can do from a fitness perspective to improve in that time so what we are trying to do is work on the way we are going to set-up and from a tactical perspective and make sure we are full equipped to deal with what Clare will throw at us.”

In his first in-depth interview since being appointed Tipperary manager, the remainder of which will be in next weeks Nenagh Guardian as part of our Munster Championship preview, the Ballingarry clubman said he doesn’t feel any extra pressure to turnaround the county’s fortunes quickly.

“Expectation levels in Tipp, after the last couple of years, have been refined to say the least,” he said.

“This year, above all years, from my own perspective, I am getting an opportunity without any major pressure to assemble a squad of players and get Tipp competitive again.

“There is no real pressure as of now. Obviously, there is always pressure when you are managing a team like Tipperary but nothing that intense as regards what we have done to date as really, we are just trying to find our way again and the league allowed us to do that. I’d like to think we’d be in good shape to be competitive come Munster Championship.”

However, he did admit there is an excitement building ahead of the big games that lie ahead and will define his first year in charge.

“The long evenings are in and last night we trained in the (Semple) Stadium for the first time since I took over as manager and you just get an extra feel for championship coming down the road with the smell of fresh cut grass in the air and the surface of Semple Stadium improving to what you’d be normally playing on as the whole starts to gather with just two weeks to go to championship so it is an exciting time for sure,” Cahill concluded.