Target being hit in terms of a stable team - Cahill

Tipperary manager Liam Cahill admitted the good was taken out of Sunday’s performance and win over Kilkenny by the four red cards shown in the ten minute spell in the second half.

By Shane Brophy

"The game definitely petered out after the sending’s off,” he admitted.

“Look, just concentrating on our own one with Alan (Tynan), I didn't see it to be honest. I believe there wasn't a whole lot in it.

“But having said that, look lads, there's a lot of pressure put on these referees at the moment. It's serious stuff, it's a job that I wouldn't like to be doing.

“We'll look at the video footage in relation to that incident. As a whole, with the sending’s off, it probably led to the game petering out from both sides. There seemed to be a good even contest up to that.

“But look, in hindsight, we were delighted to come to Nowlan Park and pick up two points. That's not usually the norm in Tipperary over the years, so we'll take it.”

When the game was a game until the Tynan sending off in the 44th minute, Tipp were much the better team with their movement and use of the ball much too good for an out of sorts home team.

“It's something we've obviously been working on and it's important to us, this league,” Cahill added.

“We've kept a lot of consistency in our team, tried one or two players each day so today was a good test again for one or two newbies. Young Oisin (O’Donoghue) making his debut in the Tipperary jersey. He did really well for thirty minutes there.

“Younger fellas again that performed well at the start of the league. The likes of young Sam O'Farrell and obviously young Darren McCarthy. All of them boys are going to be an integral part of Tipperary going into the future, not just in 2025.”

The Tipperary manager admitted before the start of the league that by the time they played Kilkenny in the penultimate round of the league that he hoped to have established a settled structure to the team and he is happy they are a long way along the road in terms of that.

"We're not far away,” he said of that.

“We have a very, very competitive panel, but I think it wouldn’t take a genius to see since we commenced the league in Salthill and Galway that there has been nine, ten of our players consistently playing throughout the league.

That's a sign, and we have no problems in saying that. That was the aim, to make sure that we'd arrive ready with that number at least pinned down before the first round of the championship.”