Cahill reshaping Tipperary, on and off the field

Tipperary Senior Hurling manager Liam Cahill sat down with Nenagh Guardian Sports Editor Shane Brophy for a wide ranging interview, looking at aspects, both on and off the field, in terms of improving the fortunes of the Premier County.

LC - Liam Cahill, SB – Shane Brophy

SB - Having reviewed how poorly 2024 went, was there a change of plan of what you trying to do for this year?

LC - “Initially, when I was appointed manager of the Tipperary senior hurling team, it was at a very difficult time. In parallel to that, apart from being in a difficult position on the field as regards where our flagship team was with personnel and the change that needed to happen, whether it needed to happen or that it was coming, it was inevitable that it was going to arrive eventually to this stage.

“Also, in parallel, administration had changed within the county board as well, and low and behold we found ourselves in a difficult spot there, which is well versed as well.

“So, I suppose, when a fella is appointed, there was a job of work, both on and off the field. Obviously, my job is primarily on the field but they both have to work in tandem together to make a high performance unit, and a team like Tipperary that is one of the highest profile GAA teams in the land, to operate.

“So, it's been a difficult two years, I won’t deny that, both on the field and off the field. Everybody is working really hard. Our relationship with Murtagh Brennan, the CEO, we've had this discussion, we were both appointed around the same time that we were both faced with tasks, albeit in different roles, to rejuvenate, re-lift, and put proper, and this is no disrespect to the people that were there before, but just to put some real structure on what needed to happen straight away to get results, and then to try and protect it going forward.”

SB - Some of the fundraising for the team has fallen on you and that shouldn’t fall under the senior hurling manager, or any manager, should it?

LC - “It shouldn't, but it is where it is at the moment. How it has got to there is irrelevant to me, it’s there now. There is unbelievable work being done in the background around a strategic plan for Tipperary, across all sectors, and that is due out very soon. That is going to give a very clear pathway of where we are going, from that side of it, and under that is some of the bolt-ons that support me in my role but there is a big emphasis on coaching at underage level, and in fairness that's paying dividends, it’s probably already in motion with the underage success we have had in recent years.

“It’s about going right back into the clubs to make that connection. That’s where we are all really looking for a base to start out from and where we finish. The GAA as a whole is all about the club and when the club is right, and if we can get that feel-good factor in our clubs, and have our own structures right. Even my own club (Ballingarry) we are always crying for support, even though we're not in the bad place at the moment either but when all of those support mechanisms are there it feeds into the overall bigger unit which is Tipperary.

“We are definitely going in the right way. The vision of the people in the executive at the moment, under Jimmy (Minogue) Chairperson, Murtagh Brennan and Eleanor (Lahart) Treasurer, and the bolt-on people that are helping as well, from my point of view I have a lot of support from the Tipperary Commercial Board, the ‘Premier Club’, as it is known, John Tierney is a big driver of that, and has been for years, and the Tipperary Supporters Club, under the new stewardship of Michael Bourke and Billy Coleman.

SB - So, the Commercial Board is still functioning?

LC - “It had gone into a little bit of regression from that period on. Obviously, there was new blood injected in, and part of my remit was to bring a few business contacts of my own to help it and thankfully they are Tipperary people the number one obviously, but they are very successful Tipperary business people, and they've done a massive work in the last few years to rebrand and rejuvenate it.

“We also have an elite membership club (The Premier Club) that people might not be aware of where you can log-in and see behind the scenes footage of our preparations and things like that. It's very much in its infancy, but this is where we want to bring it to, an elite offering for the right clientele.

“I’m not for one minute underplaying the forty euro membership of the Tipperary Supporters Club, that has been the backbone of our platform for years going back to the great Babs Keating time, and that remains an integral part of generating income of all Tipp teams.

“But this one, the Premier Club, which is a kind of a breakaway of the commercial board, is specifically designed to support the Tipperary senior hurling team, our flagship team. That's the kind of offering we want to offer people, regardless of even my term is up, that the next manager comes in and that is there as a mechanism to support him going forward.

SB - There has been a growing disconnect between the team and the supporters, and the numbers following the team in recent years. You have been vocal in looking for more support.

LC - “The first thing I really want to identify and make people aware of is we, the management and players, know there's an expectation, number one, but there is a standard that has to adhered to play for Tipperary, and when that standard isn't where it needs to be it does have a knock-on effect.

“Not for one second am I criticising supporters for not coming, build it and they will come as they say. The issue is, the little disconnect there is between the supporters and the team is probably through to a lack of us informing them enough of what is going on, and what is going on behind the scenes.

“Then people make assumptions about what is happening which sometimes is very unjust because even in the first few minutes of this discussion, you can see where we are trying to go around the various aspects of what we need to go after to lead into having a very good competitive inter-county senior hurling flagship team, and making people in Tipperary and around the world that are Tipperary people, very proud of a where they are from and making sure that the brand that is Tipperary, and I hate getting too commercial about an amateur sport, the Tipperary brand is massive for worldwide, and we need to get more bang for our buck in relation to that brand.

“Yes, some of the responsibility relies with ourselves, me as manager, maybe giving a bit more information to people in terms of what is going on and definitely our whole PR side of our county, getting it out there and being the bearer of good news as often as possible.

SB - The one downside of the professional approach to the inter-county game is that the majority of managers want to do their preparation away from the public glare, whereas in the past, training in Coolmore Morris Park and FBD Semple Stadium was more open.

LC - “I don't think I've ever had a closed train session during my two years. I want to make that very clear. I am all for that. I’m fully invested in in that principle. I remember as a child and a teenager, the excitement of coming to Semple Stadium to watch Tipp train in the late 80’s/early 90s, it was so exciting, you couldn’t to sleep the night before, coming into Semple Stadium to watch all your heroes training, and that should be the way.

“But again, as an organisation, the GAA as a whole is evolving and we haven’t access to the stadium as often as we used to. Dr. Morris is what it is, it’s a training ground, it's not very feasible for people to get in and watch us properly.

“Access to the Stadium now is quite difficult, all Tipperary championship games are played there during this condensed season which doesn't allow us to train as often as can in the Stadium, we’d be lucky to get in there a couple of times a year which is a pity because if you take other counties have access to county grounds, especially their flagship senior team, so that's an area that has hurt us a little bit in the past.

SB - Speaking of FBD Semple Stadium, Tipperary’s championship record there is poor. Since the round-robin format started, they have just two wins, one draw, and seven defeats. It’s not a true home advantage and that is where the supporters can play their part.

LC - “Everybody loves coming to Thurles. From an accessibility point of view, and then obviously it’s renowned for its playing surface and it's atmosphere. Cork will tell you they will play in Thurles every day of the week, Waterford love playing there, they played their home games there during the redevelopment of Walsh Park.

“So, you're correct in saying that, and that's why I suppose in general, it's so important that we have a good vocal crowd. It’s our home patch, it should be sacred. Tipperary should be, and have been in the past, very, very difficult to beat in Thurles, regardless of what kind of team put out as regards personnel, so that is something that players and management are very much aware of and it's very much in our thoughts each day we play in Thurles, and it does way heavy when things go wrong even in your home path. It has been a tough campaign all over the last two years.

“2023, in general, there were green shoots from my perspective, it was a case of the panel, with a lot of the older cohort still involved, and making sure that they were fully maxed out before you did anything rash. We've got some massive performances as the result. Then our season against Galway petered out with a performance didn't reflect our capabilities and that was disappointing.

“That led us into really making sure that we assessed everything to correct and come with better performances in 2024. We looked at our S&C, our nutrition, we reviewed every area. Our hurling wasn’t bad, and I felt our fitness was actually good in 2023, it tapered out for some reason against Galway.

“In hindsight it probably wasn’t area we should have gone after as aggressively as we did (in 2024). We tweaked it in such a way that it actually hurt us more. We were more focused on injury prevention and making sure that we had everybody fit and available at the right time because a number of little injuries hurt us in 2023, Jason Forde and Jake Morris with hamstring injuries at real key stages during the year. There were a couple of others as well, Gearoid O’Connor did an ankle ligament but them things happen.

“But we just felt that for us to have a fully fit team, and now some of them players made it back, but they hadn't enough done to really do themselves justice when it got to the real business end of it, so it was a really hard balancing act.

“In 2024, I felt we hadn't enough work done. I know the narrative is out there that Liam Cahill’s teams, he kills them in training and has them flogged to death before the championship comes around; you cannot help but hear that but the reality of it is, we've a lot of professional people. I just don't arrive to Dr Morris Park and get out of the car and right lads, what will we do tonight. This is planned.

“It's just a case of getting it right, and it's to do with personnel as well. Younger players are able to take more than in older players and that's something that we are very aware of that we have to improve on is getting that balance right. In terms of this year, our age profile is a lot younger.

“You have to be very careful what you come out of a club campaign with players. You gauge lads, we have a lot of young players that are only twenty, and you have to be very careful you don’t destroy them. I've made no secret, last year, I could have put my hand onto two or three U20’s to play. I knew it was needed but it wasn’t right, and it wouldn’t be right by the player, so each player individually is being looked at as to how their preparation is tailored. We train collectively but a lot of our work early on was about making sure we our endurance levels are up, and as the end of the league comes into championship, we’ll start working on our speed.

“The science is there now that you just don't go all out endurance running only for three months, it needs a mix and match, and the professionals that are with me in the background, that's near remit, and I have to trust them to get that right.

SB - Three games into the National League, are the players hitting their targets?

LC - “I would be very happy where we are at.

“From a fitness point of view, it is very much on track. It's no reflection of what we're doing like, this time of the year you're hurling isn’t going to be as good as you would need it to be on the 20th of April. But now, as we head into the second stage of the league, still trying to chase two points to be to make sure that you're safe from the bottom two and obviously trying to see can you progress into a league final if possible?

“The concentration has to come now on, on your hurling and that ball work, and that's speed work eight weeks out from the first round of the championship.

SB – Have the players found it difficult to prepare for different teams?

LC - “It’s consistency. Different teams give you different challenges. You meet some teams with a sitting half-back line, some teams would have a massively aggressive attacking back line, and I am just using that an example. You have teams that play with two sweepers, the biggest problem for me, is educating these players to be adaptable on the field. The real good teams, especially Limerick, without blowing them up too much, they are so adaptable on the field. They are able, in unison, able to change their style of play completely. Last Sunday, at the start of the second half, they totally kept the ball away from Ronan Maher, as a unit they did that.

“Unfortunately, we still are very much in the infancy of educating our younger players to that element of their game.

“Cork have something in their armoury that troubles Limerick, in that they have exceptional pace, on every single line. I'm not saying for a second that our players are slow, I’m not, but they have raw aggressive pace, and to play the high octane game that Limerick play with overlaps and wide ball, they have the lungs and the legs to be able to counteract that.

“What I'm trying to do, it's about finding that balance, it something that we have discussed, and we will be looking at it again. We won’t be meeting a Limerick every day, there are other teams that will hurt you and have hurt us already.

“We are very aware as a group, that we've nothing to prove really, only to ourselves, as a team and as a squad. While we respect any opposition, there is a mindset now that we don’t care about anybody else only get ourselves right. Even at this early stage of this transition of a lot of younger new players we genuinely believe if we can get ourselves right, get the right personnel in the right positions on the field, with the right type of a gameplan, we will be competitive to match anyone.

SB - You have tended to rotate the goalkeepers in the league, is that still the plan?

LC - “It's very, very tight with both goalkeepers. It’s a specialised area, and to be fair to both players, we have committed this year to give both two games back-to-back each, then we will start to look at tightening it down. Even after a round three, it's still very close between them.

“It's easy looking at goalie and criticise why did he give that puckout, but you have to have options out the field. We have to be brave, I have mentioned that word a lot in interviews that players, when the thing is going against us, and the puckout goes against us, have to be brave again to stay with it. If we believe, we have to stay with it. It is very tight; they are two exceptional goalies.

“Rhys (Shelly) offers you a serious platform from his lightning puckouts. Barry (Hogan) is steady, he's a great shot stopper, is cool. They both have a lot going for them, and it's going to be right good race towards the league before we really say who is going to be best for the squad going into the championship.

SB - Any goalie needs a regular full back. Eoghan Connolly has settled there, a player you had as a seventeen year old on the Under 21 team that won the All-Ireland in 2018.

LC - “He's a very committed player. A big player, physically very fit, pacey, and for a big man, he's a very good hurler, he can hit long range frees from up to one hundred yards on his day. He is unique that way and is a fella that has really come to the fore over the last eighteen months, in particular.

“I would class him as, without mentioning names of other counties full backs, they say full back is a problem area with Tipperary but if you take a step back and look at him versus opposition full backs, and we understand he has three games under his belt in the league, and has played there once or twice inadvertently in the championship, and still has quite a bit to do to prove fully that it is going to be his home for 2025, even with that assumption you’d say he is as good, if not better, than a lot of them out there.

SB - In an offensive sense, Tipp’s hack back line don’t tend to get as many long range scores as other teams, to keep other defences honest.

LC - “We haven’t that in our armoury yet. Ronan (Maher) can do it and has done it over the years in being able to clip a couple of points from the eighty yards, behind the midfield, and take out an opposing half back. Eoghan Connolly would offer you that too if you could afford to play him on the wing but maybe you can’t. It is something that we’d like to be able to hurt teams from outside.

SB - In a defensive sense, between Ronan Maher, Seamus Kennedy, Bryan O’Mara, Brian McGrath, Sam O’Farrell, Eoghan Connolly, there is size, and in the league so far when teams have gone long with their puckouts, you have dominated, so will you be pushing up on the puckout more.

LC - “We have struggled on the press in the past; I'd be the first to admit that teams have worked out through us from the back, not just Limerick but Waterford hurt us in Thurles two years ago, they were just let saunter out.

“That’s an area that takes a lot of work, people can say to me, why don’t you just push up, it’s so simple but with the way teams are, you'll get drawn across the field, looking for a swarm tackle at one side of the field, and if the ball goes wide, bang, the goalie has it out somebody on the other side so it is difficult, but it is an area we have to work on. When we do get it right, and do force to say, the mid-range is not an option, the short one is not on and they have to go long, we do compete quite well and that's a big positive.

SB - We haven’t seen Noel McGrath as yet; will he have a prominent role come the championship?

LC - “You can never rule Noel McGrath out. Noel McGrath will be coming for a jersey, every year Noel McGrath comes for a jersey. In hindsight, we didn't utilise him enough last year, to be honest we probably got consumed in that we would be meeting a lot of attacking teams around the place and where can Noel operate from, but he is such a clever player that he can adjust.

“I would see a very prominent role for him at certain stages, both from the start and coming on. Again, depending on the opposition, how is form is, depending on those players around him leading into particular games, I would see him with a big part to play.

“The joy of having Noel McGrath is he will never go off script or cause hassle. Look, I'm not a manager looking to have an easy ride with players, I get challenged every night at training from players, and rightly so, and they all challenge me in the right way. We are all looking for feedback and answers, but Noel McGrath, to his toes, his leadership, his presence in the dressing room alone, if he never took to the field of play, and there is not too many you can say that about in the county.

SB - That Noel has committed for another season is not only an endorsement of the manager but also to the players that this is a group worth sticking with.

LC - “Noel sees that, and he knows that. Under different managements, Noel has seen lean periods and poor performances. He and the likes of Jason Forde have seen this and have come through them and won silverware. Their experience from those situations is helping our group at the moment because they have that calming effect in the dressing room. You look at the younger players that are there now, they are learning a lot from them, and you can see the little conversations going.

“All and all, as a group this year, we have a group of players that are massively passionate and determined to pay for Tipperary.

“For me now, it has taken three years, I no longer walk on egg shells going into the dressing room, and this is a big plus for me for what it is worth. Whether it will pay dividend or not, I don't know, but at least I can be myself now with a group of players thar are so determined to turn things around.

SB - You mentioned you could have brought in younger players last year, Robert Doyle has started very well, Darragh McCarthy likewise. The kind of a goal Sean Kenneally got against Limerick, there was a cockiness to it, he didn’t overly celebrate it either, it was a sense of this is my job to score goals. Tipp probably haven’t had a forward since Seamus Callanan’s peak that strikes fear in an opposition and he has the potential to do that, and every team needs it.

LC – “It was lovely to see, a little reminiscent of that type of player coming back into a Tipperary jersey, without blowing them up. We have to be very careful in Tipperary when you say anything, but the reality if it is when you see the resemblance of the likes of Kenneally and McCarthy, and these fellas, maybe here is a forward like an Eoin Kelly.

“Darragh McCarthy is still nineteen years of age, he has two more years under 20. Seanie Kenneally is just out of under 20, Robert Doyle the same. Sam O’Farrell the same

“In two years’, time, however good they are now and knowing them now and where they could go to with their commitment levels and their desire to play, they will be a big part for Tipperary going forward. They are incredibly young lads to work with because if they are guided and managed right, they could be anything.

SB - David Herity has been given a more prominent role this year in terms of coaching?

LC - “From day one, the first thing I was always adamant about when I got the job was who could we appoint from within straight away.

“I've had great people with me coming from previous roles at underage and that, but to bring it to the next level. Last year, David Herity was primarily with the goalkeepers but Shane Hennessy from Nenagh Eire Og, who was involved with the Tipp underage development squads, came in under him, and he is now in that role full time. My vision there was, we have development squads for players, let’s do the same to bring through expertise, leverage off what is out there, capture it and keep it in the county. It has worked exceptionally well.

“From knowing him (David) and seeing him work with goalkeepers, and obviously his managerial experience with Kildare, we needed support around coaching. Michael Bevans is an exceptional coach, to me one of the best of the country, but at this level, you need you need support and David Herity, since he has come on board has really helped Mikey Bevans in that role to go after certain areas. There is so much to be captured when you only have these players for two hours, twice or three times a week, and there is a lot of help required, and that partnership is working really well.

“Also, Declan Laffan has taken on more of a coaching role as well. I have taken a little bit more responsibility on the field through certain stages, as well, of the sessions and that has helped us overall to get after the areas, we need to improve on.

“When you have 37 or 38 fit players on the field, thankfully this year has been going well as regards injury, to get to all the players with one coach is impossible. We know that, and that's an area that has helped us and worked big time this year because as good as Michael Bevans is you can make multiples of him.

“Anyway, the work that goes in behind the scenes straight away after matches, assessing players, performance analysis, having feedback for them within 24 hours, there's just so much work involved because it's so rapid now. People don't realise, in the background, apart from developing in-house people, 90% of the people involved with me in preparing this Tipperary team are Tipperary people. That is massively important to me and that's not being clannish or saying f-you to everyone else out there. You go after the best, don’t get me wrong, but it is nice to know you have the best from within your own country.

SB - Previously, you liked having a small, tight backroom team, it sounds like you have changed in that regard?

LC - “Between, doctor, physios, stats people, would be about nineteen people which would be the average. It would have been smaller with me in the past, but unfortunately, when you're in a job like this, the demands are so much higher.

“It is a real bugbear of mine really when you see at the end of the year headings of costings and Tipp County Board are spending money, I can't emphasise it enough but without this expertise, you just can’t compete, and unfortunate it costs money.

“Then sometimes you get little bit disappointed because you're actually spending money that you're bought in yourself, so what's the big deal? Okay, that's the costings but the players, management, and people connected with the management team have gone out and brought in a certain amount of it, not it all. Obviously, the County Board look after us really, really well, I can't emphasize that enough.

“To train an underage team now versus then I trained teams back in my day at under 20/21 has doubled and in some cases trebled. We try to be as prudent as possible, I’m not a person that spends money willy-nilly.

“In 2023, we came in, took it on and tried to steady the ship. In 2024, we went after areas that we felt hurt us but it didn’t work out, but also in the background, people forget this, there was a senior hurling development squad which I probably invested maybe too much of my own time personally, but thankfully off it you have Dylan Walsh, Joe Caesar, Robert Doyle, Josh Keller, Gavin O’Halloran, they were some of the fellas for, if that had not been done they wouldn’t have been able to put their hand up.

“That extended panel is not there this year because I think it's something that needs to be done every two to three years. Also, if you're a manager with a long-term objective or goal, it gives you a great pool of players number one, let them know they are on the radar, and then you leave them and see which of them bite and take it on.

“For example, Dylan Walsh, my own clubman, I have no problem in saying it, the question would have been asked why Liam Cahill hadn’t him in two years ago. He is a Ballingarry man, he should be in. Dylan Walsh wasn’t ready then, now he is ready, so when I refer to the less knowledgeable people, and I suppose it's me being too sensitive and being silly at times, and I shouldn't bother me backside listening to it, but it’s this kind of work that I'm talking about.

SB - Such a policy works the other way when you have to let players go from a panel many might feel were hard done by, including Sean Ryan.

LC - “These are the hard decisions you have to make, and your players lives here when you are making these decisions. Sean Ryan has been with me since 2023. We now have a pool of maybe eight people that can play in Sean Ryan’s role. There’s also Seanie Kenneally, Jake Morris, Darragh McCarthy, Dylan Walsh, Darragh Stakelum, Conor Bowe so suddenly there's eight players for two positions. That's where your decisions are being guided. Now, having said that, I would be the first to admit it, I have no problem in putting my hand up and saying I am wrong. With the way certain players may be a performance at the moment, there could be a very high possibility I could ask to meet Sean Ryan and see would he come back in again.

SB - Is some of the difficultly for Tipperary at the moment that, we as a county, have struggled to transition to the modern game. At underage, we have adapted successfully but at senior level, the younger players have it, but the older players are still finding their way.

LC - “I'm being really straight in terms of what has been the toughest part of this job over the last two years, is to get that (modern style).

“For example, the five U20’s that have come into me this year, they have it in one. For the older cohort, with the exception of the likes of Noel McGrath that has the savvy to adjust, it takes a while. It has been quite a challenge, when you're talking about working the ball against certain opposition to a certain delivery zone, men off the shoulder etc… In the past, we've had brilliant players that when Tipp start to labour, all of a shot a Bubbles O’Dwyer would throw it over his shoulder from the corner flag and over the bar, or a Callanan would create a goal out of nothing, that individual brilliance. Unfortunately, that calibre of player are only starting to come back again with that individual brilliance, and when we need it as a team together to move with that modern game.

“I would hate to think that people would also think we are trying copy someone else, we are not. We need to trust our hurling more in Tipperary, and I think that's starting to come. Believe it or not, the more we embrace this modern game and trust in our Tipperary instincts on hurling, we can master it better than anyone.

“In terms of athleticism this has been flagged. It has been discussed in our academies and in fairness anytime Kevin Hally (Tipperary Games Manager) would check-in with me, it has come up about our athleticism as a county. Sometimes that's just a bad run, and all of a shot you can produce athletes out of nowhere, but it has hurt us over the last four or five years, our ability with speed, athleticism, endurance, to get around the field. Yes, we have the stick men and the hurling men, but it's definitely an area where other teams have hurt us with big engines, big pace, a lot of hard running, a lot of emptying in the tackle where fitness levels get called into play versus where before you get a corner back and he would land it up and it's only three v three whereas now it is 7 v 5 or whatever, so it just makes it more difficult.

SB - This time last year, would you have had concerns through the League that things weren’t where you felt they needed to be?

LC - “The first concerns for me last year was Antrim in Corrigan Park. I had my worries after that. Personally, I didn't say it to anybody. I came out of Corrigan Park really worried about where we were overall. That obviously fed into the league semi-final against Clare, and you are paddling against the tide then to correct it.

“This year, touch wood, so far so good. We are in a good spot; we are still on a gradual progression.

“Last year, it was really around the effort, the players try every day, but it was our inability to stay in the fight. Of all things, that hurts me the most. You often hear the great Brian Cody reference spirit all through his twenty-odd years of management. You have to have spirit, and when haven't that, you can come to some sort of terms with it when you're beaten when you have fellas with sweat on their head and fighting for their lives. When you haven’t that fight, it's a pity as it does way heavy.

“Again, it is something we will engrain into these players as much as we can and see where it takes us.

SB - In the Championship, you couldn’t have much of a tougher start, Limerick at home on Easter Sunday, and then going to Cork a week after, realistically, you've need to get two points out of the first two games, minimum.

LC - “You are under the pump straight away. We will be fighting for our lives this year. It's no surprise that we are favourites to be out of the championship by May. We understand all that and the stats and the opinions would justify that but the reality of it is, it is all about ourselves, we’ll know on the training field towards the end of this league, where we're at. No one will no better in the players. They will be in tip-top shape, they will give it everything they have got, of that, I'm sure.

“You have to remember too that Cork last year lost in the first two rounds of the Munster Championship and still ended up in All-Ireland Final. So, I have said it before, we tend to love a good failure here in Tipp and we need to get away from that. I'm the most realistic person you'd meet and sometimes I can go from being realistic to being negative. There is no one more aware than me or the players what has to happen, but we have to keep our cool that if Limerick doesn’t go well or Cork, there is still four points up for grabs. We have gone to Ennis and won twice, we can get results against Waterford when we are ready and with the right mindset, and then, who knows, that is the joy of this championship with the way it is, it's all about the mindset and stay believing regardless of what way results go.

“I said it last year, that Clare game in Thurles was one of the most difficult moments of my managerial career. I don’t think I will meet anything like it and I hope this year won’t replicate it, but the reality of it was, how the players shook them themselves down, came into training on the Tuesday night with nothing to play for, with their morale and spirit on the ground, everything coming at them from all angles about what they were and what they weren’t, and yet they rolled up their sleeves, went eight points down and brought it back and fought to the end. For me, believe it or not, in hindsight, was a real sign there was stuff in these fellas, when they are prepared right, when we get it right, and we support them right as a manager, as coaches, and with the resources, they will give you everything and will get the results.”