By John Harrington

Tipperary defender, Michael Cahill, has confirmed he will play on for the Premier County again in 2018.

The 28-year-old Thurles Sarsfields club-man made his senior inter-county debut for Tipperary in 2009 and admits he thought long and hard about whether or not to commit to a 10th season in the blue and gold.

“Yeah, I suppose I was thrashing it around in my head but it is looking likely at the moment anyway,” said Cahill today at the launch of the AIG Fenway Hurling Classic.

“I’ll give it another rattle anyway.”

Cahill found himself out of favour after Tipperary’s defeat to Galway in this year’s Allianz Hurling League Final, and didn’t start another game until the two teams met again in the All-Ireland semi-final.

After being called back in from the cold, Cahill reminded everyone just how classy an operator he is by producing a quality display at corner-back.

“I had a few injuries earlier in the year and when lads are playing well it’s hard to get your place back," said Cahill.

“It was nice to be put in against Galway and have the opportunity to play but unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of that.

“As a back-line the big positive for us is that we stood up.

“Personally, it was great to come through it and be injury-free since that. You have years that will knock you back and injuries knock the confidence for a while but the main thing is to stay on track and stay focused, and hopefully come through.”

There had been major question marks over the Tipperary full-back line going in to the All-Ireland semi-final, and Cahill relished the opportunity to prove the critics wrong and prove his own worth. 

“That’s exactly how I approach it, I was mad for hurling action this year,” he said.

“There was a lot of talk about the full-back being a weak link but we saw that as something to drive us on.

“In fairness to the lads in the full-back line and Darren (Gleeson) in goals, we really stood up to it when it did come.

“It was just that lucky score at the end, a fantastic score, that caught us but apart from that we could have easily been in an All-Ireland.

“It was great to be answer our critics and we used that as a motivational force really.”

Tipperary’s options in the full-back line this year were reduced after Cathal Barrett was axed for a breach of discipline, but Cahill his hopeful the Holycross-Ballycahill man will be back in the fold next year.

“I haven’t heard anything yet,” he said. “I suppose that’s down to the management to call him in and out but it’d be nice to see Cathal back in.

“You want to see your best players hurling any day you go out and in fairness to Cathal before he got injured and in the last couple of years, he is probably the best corner-back in the country from what I can see anyway.

“He’s a hardy boy and he’s well able to hurl, he’s the type of lad you want playing on big match days as well so I’d say he’ll get the call but we don’t know yet really where he stands.”