Cahill admits difficulty in picking his best team

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary manager Liam Cahill was pleased that his players came into Saturday’s game with Offaly in Tullamore with the right attitude and it is one they will need in each game going forward.

“There has been a lot of disappointments from the last round of the Munster Championship,” he admitted.

“We had the three weeks to look at ourselves, both as players and management team to make sure we arrived ready today to perform in knockout hurling and that is what it is from here on in, there is no safety net, and you have to be ready to perform.

“I’m glad we found that and that will tell you the respect we gave Offaly coming up and is a respect we try and give every team. Some days it works for you and some days it doesn’t.”

He added: “We are Tipperary hurlers, the stakes are really high now and the demands are big and you have to come ready to play. It is my job to have the players and Mikey (Bevans) and the lads that are with me that support these players, to have them ready for the big battles and the big fires that are going to come.

“We’ll be putting out fires again before we can say we’re serious All-Ireland contenders, so look, that’s part of our job. We won’t dwell on it too long, we are happy with our performance today, but we’ll be right back to it again from Monday or Tuesday night on and look forward to the challenge of Galway.”

While the Ballingarry clubman didn’t want to reflect too much more on the poor performance against Waterford which cost Tipp a place in a Munster final and almost their continued presence in the championship, he felt it was an important learning moment for the entire group.

“It was a combination of Waterford being really good and Tipperary not being up to the level we committed to,” he said.

“It’s done now. We have addressed and talked about the areas we need to look after and improve on, so we are looking forward now and not back. We are still where we want to be in an All-Ireland quarter final with a real chance of progressing into the last four and that has been our objective since the start of the year. We are still alive and still in with a fighting chance.

“The Tipp supporters, I have to say, were incredible. There was nearly 10,000 people here and at least eight thousand of them were Tipperary and that doesn’t go unnoticed with us as a panel and a management team. We know the support is out there and we know that these Tipp people want something to follow, and we are going to try and commit to doing that for them as long as we can this year in the championship.”

Bar the hamstring injury to Craig Morgan, Tipperary will carry few injuries into next Saturday’s quarter final against Offaly with Cathal Barrett, Patrick Maher and Conor Bowe set to come back into contention after sitting out the Offaly game.

“Craig Morgan had a hamstring or muscle injury and whether he cramped up; we are not sure,” he revealed.

“Little knocks but in general we got through the day almost unscathed, so I’d like to think we’d nearly have a full panel available to pick from next weekend.”

He added: “That’s where the challenge for us and the job I have on hand here as manager is to make sure we pick the right players and as I said from the start there, possession is nine tenths of the law here and players that played today did very well, so there will be disappointed bodies next Thursday night when I announce the team, but that’s what happens in a competitive environment.”