Waterford ace Maurice Shanahan determined to prove Liam Cahill wrong

Maurice Shanahan is refusing to call time on his inter-county hurling career and says he is determined to prove new manager Liam Cahill wrong by forcing his way back into the Waterford squad.

Experienced duo Shananan (30) and Noel Connors were not part of the 50-strong training squad that Cahill assembled earlier this year after he took charge of the Déise county, and after 11 years representing the Munster outfit, Shanahan feels he still has something to offer.

And in conversion with The Backdoor Hurling Show, Shanahan says he felt a little hard done by after not getting the chance to impress the Tipperary native when he took over.

“It was (tough to take) to be honest. We started in ’09 so we are over ten years there. To get a phonecall like that isn’t a nice phonecall to get,” said Shanahan, who won a Munster title alongside his brother Dan in 2010.

I can’t talk for Noel, but the one thing I would have a problem about is there was over 50 lads given a chance. Myself and Noel were the only two not given a chance.

“But look, if that’s what Liam thinks, best of luck to him. Hopefully we can go out with our clubs and hopefully prove him wrong. But it doesn’t always happen like that either.”

The announcement by the GAA in recent days that the inter-county season will restart in October means there is a chance that Cahill’s Waterford will have the chance to finish out their impressive national league campaign.

With three wins from their five games Waterford had finished second in Group A and had qualified to play Kilkenny in the quarter-final.

And while he is refusing to say his time in the county shirt is over now, Shanahan knows he faces an uphill task to impress with his club Lismore as soon as their games return at the end of July.

“I’ll never say my county days are over, but I suppose under Liam they probably are over. If I wasn’t one of the best 50 to get a trial, how can he really call you back, you know?

“Look, I’ll never turn my back on Waterford to be honest. Hopefully I can go back with my club and perform with my club and help them get back up there, because we have a great club in Lismore.

“We are not that far away either. We have good young fellas coming through. We have two on the Waterford panel, Jack Pender and Iarlaith Daly. I am the oldest on the club team bar Dan. We’ll go back training with our club and see where we can go with them.”