Cahill: Players need to be braver with the ball

“Goals win matches,” was how Tipperary manager Liam Cahill described his sides defeat to Cork in the National Hurling League final on Sunday.

“Cork deserved winners on the day, to be honest.

“15-20 minutes into the first half, they hit us with three goal opportunities and converted them. It was an uphill task after that, to be honest.

“But that's what good teams do. This Cork team, after building momentum over the last two years under Pat Ryan, and transitioning all these underage successes through, they look like real formidable opponents now, and a formidable team to go on and go after Munster and the All-Ireland. They're not favourites to win the All-Ireland for nothing.”

The Ballingarry clubman was keen to take some positives from the game, including not throwing in the towel after falling thirteen points behind at half time.

“I was very, very proud of the way our players performed in the second half,” Cahill added.

“We went after a few areas that hurt us at half-time, tried to fix them, and I thought, by the scoreboard, we won the second half, really.

“That was our objective, to go out and fix them areas and see how we'd perform. I’m really happy with the way we got our heads around that.

“We never gave up, stayed chipping at the scoreboard, but I suppose it didn't really create a goal chance or two either that we needed to do to chip into that scoreline.”

Tipperary were level at eight points apiece on nineteen minutes but lost the remainder of the half 3-8 to 0-4 with inability to get their hands on the ball from both their and Cork’s puckout a key factor.

“The mid-range puck out,” was the one that Cahill feels hurt his side massively.

“Tim O'Mahony in particular, his possession stats were very high, too high for my liking at half-time and getting that out-ball out to the flanks to Barrett and these guys. Cork got massive traction off of that.

“Look, we didn't counteract it obviously, and it kind of opened up channels for Cork to run through and hit us for the three goals that they did.

“But I thought in the second half we dealt with that a bit better.”

Tipperary didn’t hurl with the same fluency and spark they had played with through the course of their run to the final, however, Liam Cahill was keen to stress they came to Cork to win but the focus always was on the first round of the championship on Sunday week.

“We won't say now that we didn't come down here to try and win the match, of course we did,” he said.

“Any team, I suppose, at this stage have their sights fully fixed on the Munster Championship.

“That's where we were at today, making sure that we were getting in that experience for three weeks' time. We get to do this all again in three weeks' time.

“It could be a different scenario, me standing in front of you in three weeks' time. We hope it will be from our side, from my perspective. We have areas now that we know that's going to come at us. We just have to get better over the next couple of weeks to fix it and see can we turn that result here in three weeks' time.”

Much was made beforehand of the pace and power of the Cork players, but Cahill didn’t feel his players were that much second best in that regard.

“I'm not sure is it that big of a gulf?” Cahill said.

“We finished reasonably strong as well today.

“Yes, we lost position once or twice in contact, all right, but I think that's not a reflection maybe on Cork's over-physicality. They have improved in that area, don't get me wrong.

They are a big side, and they are fit and they're a fabulously pacey team.

“But I thought, on the physical stakes that I didn't feel that we were bullied around the field to that effect. I don't know. That will not be something that will be a major concern to me heading into the Munster Championship around our physicality.”

He added: “Maybe I'm misreading the question, but we need to just get braver with our hurling and trust one another more to transition that ball quicker and get a little bit more movement on getting that ball off especially from my own puck out and stuff like that.

“So, they're the areas that come into my mind after rather than a lack of physicality from my perspective.”

On the positive side, Cahill was pleased with the performance of Sam O’Farrell in the role of a roving wing-forward.

“Sam likes to go forward, he is a very athletic player,” he said.

“He did a really good job as well at centre-field when he moved there in the second half, and can do a job at wing-back as well.

“He's a really exciting young player and the workload is tough on these fellas now as well because of their under-20 involvement as well, young Darragh McCarthy today the same.

“It's tough going and it's going to take a good bit of managing over the next couple of weeks to make sure that we have them players right each day they play.”