Uplifting return so far for Liam Sheedy

Belief is something that Liam Sheedy has never been short of.
On the field with his beloved Portroe and Tipperary, it carried him far, winning an All Ireland Under 21 medal in 1989 and was only a Jamsie O'Connor swing away from a senior All Ireland in 1997.
Success might have been in short supply with Portroe but being at the helm with his brother John on that famous day in 2012 when they won their one and only North Tipperary Senior Hurling title won't be beaten by anything Tipperary have or will achieve in his stewardship.
However, there was still a sense of unfinished business when he made the approach to the Tipperary County Board last September to be considered to succeed Michael Ryan as manager.
On the Sunday Game programme in August of last year, while he did everything but say he wouldn't be going back, he didn't say no and that got the idea running through his head.
Could he do this again? Could he go through the mill of managing an inter-county team and all its changes, even in the nine years he had been looking on from the outside?
Earlier this year, he said he owed it to the experienced players on the panel, such as Seamus Callanan, Padraic, Brendan & Patrick Maher, and Noel McGrath to see if he could help them win another All Ireland.
Well he hasn't gotten them there yet but to be within seventy minutes of a third Liam MacCarthy Cup in ten seasons is as much as you can ask for right now for a team that many felt needed to be overhauled this year but Sheedy's loyalty has been repaid so far.
“When you get the chance to be involved in your own county it is an honour. It is one I am really, really enjoying,” he said.
“It is one I said any time I would get it I would give my maximum in the role.”
And it was that reason why Sheedy made the surprise announcement just weeks after the 2010 All Ireland Final success that he would be stepping away, after scaling the mountain in his third year in charge, depriving Kilkenny of an historic five in a row.
Successful managers that have left are generally told never to go back. Michael 'Babs' Keating's second term with Tipperary is a cautionary tale but Liam Sheedy had no doubts as to his ability to perform the role once more.
“I have enjoyed being back,” he said.

 

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