Tipperary boss Liam Cahill will have 'uncomfortable meetings' with county board

Limerick manager John Kiely has demanded more from his side when they face Cork in the Munster SHC final on June 7

Tipperary hurling manager Liam Cahill has urged patience with the county's talented young players. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Tipperary boss Liam Cahill expects it to be a tough winter after their 2026 season came to an end with a 17-point defeat against Limerick.

The All-Ireland champions failed to win a game in their Munster campaign and Cahill anticipates a thorough investigation to follow.

“There will be plenty of reviews,” he said post-match.

“The county board will do their job. They are really supportive of all teams in Tipperary. They will do their duty of care to get in behind us. I will have some uncomfortable meetings with them and they will ask the questions they are entitled to ask. We will see what answers we can come up with.” 

Cahill urged patience with the underage talent in the county, citing criticism he received over the starting 15 picked on Sunday.

“The options are there. Again, we must be really cautious and try to make sure people don’t get ahead of themselves or get too excited. We are still not fully sure what we will get from these teams. I have said it before, there is great work being done at underage level in Tipperary and we have a lot of good individual players, really talented individual hurlers.

“But when they come into an environment like this, where the physicality is through the roof, bodies are tackling from all angles and six-foot-six lads like Kyle Hayes are standing under a dropping ball, this is what people tend to forget. It is very difficult to whip a fella out of minor or U20 and stick him in there today.

“I was told we got a little bit of criticism over the team today. Why didn’t we go with a fully youthful team? We saw today that this is a process that will take time. Had we loaded that team with more U20s, it could leave scars that would remain for a while.” 

Three-time All-Star Noel McGrath spent considerable time on the field afterwards with friends and family. He scored two points before coming off on the 50-minute mark.

“I don’t need to laud any praise on Noel McGrath. His record speaks for itself. Noel will be given the opportunity, as he has been given every year of my term, to make up his mind because that is how good a player he is.” 

Meanwhile, John Kiely demanded even more from his Limerick squad ahead of a significant clash with Cork.

“It has the makings of a proper game of hurling and that is where every player should want to be, in a Munster final where it matters most. We will try to put our best foot forward and improve on our performance levels over recent weeks. They have been reasonable to good, but we want more. We want more from the group as a whole, sustained throughout the game. That is going to require fellas to dig deep now. I know they will.”