Bullish Tipperary boss Liam Cahill insists he's going nowhere  

“I take umbrage to that question actually. I’ve a three-year term with possibly a one-year extension," the Premier manager said.

STAYING OUT: Tipperary manager Liam Cahill in Thurles on Sunday. Pic: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

Liam Cahill insists he has full backing to continue as Tipperary manager into next year after a disappointing campaign ended in a three-point defeat to Clare.

The Premier boss objected to a question post-match asking whether he was the right man to lead the county forward.

“I don’t know, what do you think?” he shot back.

When pressed on the matter, he replied: “I’m appointed for a three-year term – I’ve no doubt about that.

“I take umbrage to that question actually. I’ve a three-year term with possibly a one-year extension.

“I have full support of the county board, 100% behind me, and what’s paramount to me and my management team is I have 100% support of them players next door. So that’s not even a question.” 

Tipperary GAA PRO Jonathan Cullen nodded his agreement as Cahill expressed the support he has from the board.

The Ballingarry man went on to outline his relief at the performance Tipp put in to come back from eight points down to push Clare all the way for a finish.

“Where we have come from from the commencement of this championship to where we are today is a small little bit of a relief, in a way.

“We tried our utmost today to put a little bit more pride back in the Tipp jersey and our supporters, versus our performance seven days ago.

“They committed to really hanging in there today. Very happy and very proud of them in that regard.

“We just know that performances to date had us where we are, and that is bottom of the table.

“On today's evidence and on the evidence of during the week with our superb minor and U20 teams and the work underage, James Woodlock with the minors and Brendan Cummins with the U20s, it is not all despair in Tipperary.

“It is time now for calm and cool heads, put things into perspective, and really build on what has been a difficult championship for our flagship team, but a really positive one from a development point of view and what is coming behind us.

“We’ll definitely look at this as hard as we can from next October, when it comes around again, and fulfil my three-year term and make sure that we keep trying to put Tipperary back to the top table.” 

Cahill believes more consistency and physicality are required to achieve that aim as he explained Tipp’s winless championship.

“There were a number of elements. It’s consistency number one, that’s the big thing. There would have been areas of our play at times that we practiced in training that didn’t come out onto the field. That’s something we have to look at.

“It’s very hard to build a real good game plan which a lot of ye guys in front of me feel we’re minus at the moment. That’s fair enough but we have to go back to our principles of being more physical in our style and brand of play. When that comes, our style will come with it.”

When asked about the futures of Noel McGrath and Patrick Maher, who were introduced off the bench, Cahill said they will be allowed to decide for themselves.

“They have put in some service for Tipperary and that will be their decision.

“I think this current management team have been really respectful towards that cohort of players, and only rightly so. And we’ll continue to do that.

“That’s not my style, it’s not my management team’s style. But we will have honest conversations, like we always do, and we’ll come up with whatever works for both parties.”

On a personal level, Cahill described the challenge of managing the fallout from the 18-point defeat to Cork.

“It is so difficult from an emotional point of view. At the start of the year, it is a lot easier to manage expectations than it is to manage disappointment.

"Unfortunately, through this campaign, we are just managing disappointment more so than expectation, which is always that extra little bit difficult.”