Liam Cahill: 'It was always going to be a three-year-plus plan'

For the past decade Liam Cahill has been managing at inter-county level. Minor, U21, U20, and senior.

There has been joyful days. Painful ones, too.

Cahill, though, assumes responsibility and that is critical for any leader. "When you’re in any job, it’s the same for any person in a management role, when they feel they have the responsibility of a certain standing and when they represent so many people, you can’t but feel that responsibility.

"You always look out at a team hoping that they’ll reflect what you encourage them what to do and what you would like to see happening from a performance perspective," Cahill explains.

"Even though you’re the manager of a team you’re looking in as a supporter too to make sure they reflect everything that you want in an outfit to make people proud. That’s what you’re trying to create.

"When that doesn’t happen, as the old saying goes, players win matches and managers lose them, and the buck stops with the manager. That weighs heavily whether managers admit that or not.

"I’d be very surprised if it doesn’t weigh heavily on everybody in a role of that magnitude in particular, when it comes to poor performances and looking at and reflecting on what needs to happen to improve."

Transition is a word frequently used in sport. When Cahill accepted the role, there was always going to be significant change in the panel. Did Cahill ever feel it was the wrong time to take the position? "It all depends on the manager, what the mindset of the manager is," Cahill replies.

"Are you taking on a role to be personally successful or taking on the role to genuinely improve the team regardless of the results. Are you taking it on as a hurling person, or GAA person who loves hurling.

"Yes, it’s performance-driven and performance-related. But, when people look back on managerial terms, they judge it by what you’ve won.

"The reality of it is at the time I came in in 2023 most people in Tipperary knew that there was a big change coming. Unfortunately, we had a number of really top-class players for the last decade who were just coming towards the end of their inter-county careers, and the gap between what needed to come in and replace them, wasn’t maybe fully ready at the time."

So, Cahill's conversations with Tipperary GAA officials mattered deeply. "The meetings I had and the discussions I had when I accepted the role would have been around absolutely having time, being given an opportunity and a chance, and having patience," he adds.

"Unfortunately, when you’re in a county as demanding as Tipperary not everybody sees that and understands that, and expectedly so.

"It’s not too different to Kerry from a football perspective, the demands are really high, so that brings added pressure as well.

"For me, it was always going to be a three-year-plus plan, obviously the County Board agreed a three-year term initially. In fairness to them as well they stood by me, and backed me to do what the vision was to try to bring as many players as possible and a new generation of players as quickly as possible, and as structured as possible without pushing fellas too soon.

"They had patience, look, we find ourselves where we are, thank God, but again there is huge credit due to the players, and all the panel who have come to real top commitment levels, from last October onwards to get us where we are today."

Preparing for Sunday's All-Ireland SHC Final against Cork at Croke Park illustrates Tipperary's progress in 2025.

Only 14 months ago, Tipp exited Munster in disappointing fashion.

Cahill highlights the emerging talent in the county and the mixture of style and substance in the Electric Ireland MHC decider success over Kilkenny at UPMC Nowlan Park last year. "We came out of Nowlan Park on the back of such a huge performance from young players of 16 and 17 years of age showing us what we try to ingrain in our players from a coaching and management perspective," Cahill says.

"The minor win gave us a great sense of pride, but also a great sense of realisation as a senior squad and senior management team, that we need to be doing that from where we’re at and the responsibility we have to the jersey.

"That has to come from the top down, we should be inspiring young fellas rather than they inspiring us."

Grit and determination have been repeatedly demonstrated by Cahill's panel. "The players have seen what’s now required, and have committed to it, and thankfully we’re bringing it out ourselves in our performances to date," Cahill remarks.

"When you’re in a final you’re always going to reflect on your journey and getting to the final. We’ve come through some really tough games, with big performances and big moments in matches, all through the Munster championship, the Clare game in Ennis, and Waterford coming back level with us with 10 minutes to go in Thurles, the All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny. So, this is not a flash in the pan from this group of players, they’re doing it consistently throughout the 2025 season.

"I think we’ll huge gain huge encouragement from that, it will be something important for us if we can bring this thing down to the last five or 10 minutes of the All-Ireland and we’re still in the hunt, I think we will have huge resilience and belief in our ability to get the job done."

Returning to Croke Park for the All-Ireland SHC Semi-Final against Kilkenny, it was Tipperary's first game at the Jones Road venue in the championship for six years. Was Cahill confident the emerging players would perform? “I wouldn’t say I was confident, but I was happy that it wouldn’t phase us too much," Cahill responds.

“Look, our start against Kilkenny was poor, we had eight players who had never played in Croke Park before. We can cast it aside and say it has no bearing altogether, but it would have been a little bit of a concern that it would take us a while to adjust.

"As it transpired it did, our performance wasn’t where it needed to be for the first 18/20 minutes, Kilkenny raced into a eight points to a goal lead. It will help us, and will have to help us, leading into the final that we came through a fairly rigorous run-out in Croke Park in an All-Ireland semi-final with a big crowd there as well.

"We have players in Tipp, when their confidence is up, they like the big arena, like performing, but they don’t curl up. I know they won’t come Sunday, and they’ll embrace the challenge, and it won’t be for the want of trying."