We cannot afford to leave goal chances behind us – Cahill

By Noel Dundon

Tipperary manager Liam Cahill, though happy that his side finished the league campaign by not losing their final game to Kilkenny, has identified plenty of areas to work on in the next few weeks ahead of the Munster championship opener against Cork.

Taking the goal chances created, and touch on the ball were two areas pinpointed by the Ballingarry clubman in the aftermath of the draw, and while overall he expressed satisfaction with the league campaign, he was still earmarking those two big elements as requiring much work in the training field.

“We were happy that we did not lose the game,” he began.

“We could have won it with a couple of goal chances going abegging – those goals could have put a bit of daylight between the teams but when you don’t take them you pay the price with Kilkenny because they stay in the fight and they got something out of it in the end.

“We will be going after that sharpness in the hurling over the next few weeks. New time will be in and we will be getting daylight into the training sessions and based on tonight we really need to.

“We are always encouraging our lads to be brave on the ball but tonight we were a bit silly on the ball and there is a difference between being brave and being silly. So, we definitely need to look at this and make sure that our hurling is suitable to the risk we will be taking when working the ball out.”

He added: “When it comes to putting away goal chances we will have to go after that because you just cannot miss three or four goal chances at this level- it is unforgivable. So, these are the areas we will be going after over the next few weeks and just hope for a bit of luck that we can keep players healthy as well.”

As for the league campaign which yielded three wins, two defeats and one draw, Liam was relatively happy having had the chance of introduce some new players, while at the same time giving the more experienced players game time as well.

“I would have been disappointed with the two games we lost especially the Limerick game in Semple Stadium where our energy levels were not good,” Cahill added.

“But the league has been very beneficial for us in getting opportunities into players coming onto the scene and towards the latter stages then getting more experienced players back on the field who have been laid up with injuries. “Training has been great and the lads have been training really well, but there is no substitute for playing games in an environment like that tonight. We have gotten a good bank of training into the players and we will have a few more workouts before the championship and it is good to have gotten those players back into it,” he said.

John McGrath was not risked in this game having picked up a soft tissue injury in training and Darragh McCarthy had to leave the field following a collision. The hope is that both will be fine come championship. The management will look at the panel of players in the coming weeks and assess where they are at, Liam confirmed.

There was a special word for Jake Morris who put in a man of the match performance for Tipperary, only hours after losing his grandfather Jimmy – a legend of the Nenagh Eire Og club.

Liam said: “Jake was excellent again today and he is a key player for us in Tipperary. It was a tough night for him after the passing of his grandfather Jimmy and we extend our sympathies and condolences to the Morris family and the Nenagh Éire Óg GAA club. Jake was adamant that Jimmy would have requested him to play the game and he was always very proud of Jake and he can be very proud of him again tonight.”