Plenty for Liam Cahill to work on as he aims to get Tipperary 'right for the championship'
Tipperary manager Liam Cahill in Thurles at the weekend. Picture: INPHO/Natasha Barton
Despite securing Tipperary’s third victory on the spin on Saturday, Liam Cahill says Westmeath’s whirlwind comeback exposed “a lot of areas that would give us concern”.
The Premier manager was a relieved man after a stoppage-time own goal from keeper Noel Conaty ensured his side survived their late scare, winning 3-25 to 2-21 in Thurles.
Tipp simply couldn’t deal with Westmeath’s high-ball barrage. With a carbon copy of the approach that stunned Wexford last summer, Westmeath slashed a 14-point deficit with 19 minutes remaining back to four entering stoppage time.
Niall Mitchell was the target and U20 star David Williams the major beneficiary, scoring 2-12 and seeing a penalty saved by Rhys Shelly. They overwhelmed Tipp by 2-8 to 0-4 until the insurance score.
“Delighted to get out with the win with the way things were going down the home straight,” said Cahill afterwards.
“Westmeath were resilient all through the game, regardless of what type of a margin was opened up. They asked a lot of questions of us, especially in the air.”
Plenty of questions and not enough answers just yet.
“It’s jumping out at us that we still haven’t perfected it or any way near it,” continued Cahill.
“It’s something we’re going to have to really work on before this league closes to have ourselves right for the championship.
“It’s three from three but there’s a lot of areas that would give us concern.”
With 14 changes from the victory over Galway, this was a Tipperary team mixing older faces needing a tune-up and newer faces needing to impress as Cahill prepares to trim his panel this week.
It was understandable, so, if their interplay was far from perfect in front of 1,962 fans at Semple Stadium but two Mark Kehoe goals in the space of a minute set them on their way to a 2-12 to 0-10 half-time lead.
Kehoe was withdrawn after jarring his knee although Cahill’s medical team were “confident there’s no damage done of any significance”.
Jason Forde compiled 0-12 (11 frees) and Conor Stakelum contributed 0-6, even if one should’ve been a goal instead. He also assisted Kehoe’s second major.
For Forde, Noel McGrath, Dan McCormack, and Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher, making their first appearances of 2024, Cahill said the run-out was “as good as three or four training sessions”.
As for his panel composition, Cahill added: “It definitely answered a few questions for us as a management team around the shape of our panel going forward for the remainder of the league.
“We’ve been committed to making sure we don’t do anything rash by any player. We’ve put the structures in place to make sure that we definitely leave nobody behind us.
“There’ll be a number of players that will definitely benefit from what they’ve done with us for next year.
“Great learnings for them to go away now and improve for next year and see can they really stamp their authority on the team and the panel.” Among the debutants, Seán Hayes teed up Cathal Quinn for an early goal chance, which was somehow deflected over by Conaty’s outstretched leg.
But Westmeath charged back into the contest. Their bench tacked on 0-5, via David O’Reilly and the Doyle twins, Killian and Ciarán.
Once Mitchell was switched into full-forward, the Clonkill colossus began to cause havoc under high deliveries, allowing Williams to whip a loose sliotar to the net in the 53rd minute.
Within a minute, they had a penalty to bring it back to a seven-point game. Barry Heffernan wrestled Mitchell to the turf but he was bailed out by Shelly, who turned Williams’ strike around the post.
The gap was still 10 with four minutes remaining when Westmeath drilled 1-3, Mitchell laying off a long ball to Williams for the goal before winning another tap-over free.
But amid a goalmouth scramble at the other end, it was Maher who forced Conaty into his error to seal a seven-point win.
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