Tipperary hurler Bryan O'Mara in attendance for the announcement of the FRS Recruitment GAA World Games launch at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Tipperary’s transformation under Liam Cahill has been the story of the hurling season so far.
To gauge just how far they’ve come in a very short period of time, it’s worth looking back on how far they had fallen.
They lost every match they played in the Munster championship last year, a campaign that ended with a one-sided 12-point defeat at home to Cork.
On Saturday Tipperary will play the same opponents but are now looking like a very different proposition mentally, physically, and tactically.
There’s a vibrant energy around this Tipperary team that just wasn’t there last year, and according to defender Brian O’Mara that’s in no small part down to the approach of team manager Liam Cahill and his right-hand man Michael Bevans.
“Enthusiastic is probably the best word to put on it, to be honest,” says O’Mara. “The boys just bring energy.
“We had the underage and stuff, so we had a relationship there with them but that doesn’t mean anything if you are not training well or not playing well. It’s whoever is training well and playing well.
“The boys want energy, energy around the field. Even when you are blowing and it might be the last ten minutes of a game, it’s just about keeping the energy levels and body language strong.”
Tipperary manager Liam Cahill celebrates his side winning a free during the Co-Op Superstores Munster Hurling League Final match between Cork and Tipperary at Páirc Ui Rinn in Cork. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
The return of O’Mara to the Tipperary panel this year has also been a factor in their improvement because he’s successfully buttressed a defence that struggled at times in 2022.
Last year he watched that listless defeat to Cork from the stand because he’d decided to go travelling for the summer, and as difficult as it was to watch, he never regretted his decision to take a year out from inter-county hurling.
“No regrets, to be honest,” he says. “And nothing got to do with how things worked out for Tipperary last year, I just wanted to go. So even if they won an All-Ireland I don’t think I’d have any regrets, I was happy enough to enjoy my summer and head off abroad, hit the reset button and it gives you more of a hunger for it this year then.
“It was more a bad run of injuries I suppose and doing a small bit of travelling was something I always wanted to do.
“During covid when you were hardly able to go 5km down the road, it heightens your appreciation for heading off abroad as well. All of my friends were going and I felt this was my one opportunity to go. You could get to 30 years of age, a lot of guys you ask and they say, ‘Jeez, I regret not going.’ I didn’t want to have that, so I said I was going to go.”
You can be sure Cahill was thrilled to be able to call on O’Mara, because he’s so suited to the brand of hurling the Tipperary manager wants to play.
He demands his defenders to be brave in possession, both in terms of giving and receiving passes and having the ambition and athleticism to take on opposition players with the ball in hand.
O’Mara fits the bill in every way. He’s tremendously athletic, very skilful, and isn’t afraid to get up the field and take a score himself.
Limerick players, left, Peter Casey and Cathal O'Neill in action against Bryan O'Mara of Tipperary during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Semi-Final match between Limerick and Tipperary at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Photo by John Sheridan/Sportsfile
In the modern game defenders are no longer primarily stoppers, they’re expected to be creators too, and the commanding O’Mara has the skill-set to do both.
“Your back line is your platform,” he says. “Even goalies, corner backs, every player on the field has to be comfortable on the field, it’s just about composure, don’t panic on the ball and make the right decision.
“You could end up anywhere, the full-back line, midfield, make a run up the field and next thing you are wing-forward for a couple of minutes.
“So you have to be adaptable and comfortable, because if you are not that is something the opposition will suss out and capitalise on.”
A combination of a broken arm in 2021 and a summer spent travelling in 2022 meant Tipperary’s Munster SHC victory over Clare two weeks ago was O’Mara’s Championship debut, but you would hardly have guessed so natural did he look on that stage.
His potential is huge, and it will surely help his development that the Tipperary coaching team includes two of the greatest half-backs the game has ever seen in Padraic Maher and Tony Kelly.
“Massive,” says O’Mara of the influence those two have had on him already.
“Even if he never said a word, just from what Padraic has done, having him there. What he does say is very good, and himself and Tony Browne are really good thinkers of the game.
“You take everything they say on board, because they have been there and done it for years. No better people to have involved in a performance role than those two lads.”
This Tipperary team under Cahill is still a work in progress, so you’d imagine they’ll get a huge bounce off that opening round victory over Clare and raise their level again for what should be a ferocious contest against Cork on Saturday.
“Hopefully, hopefully,” says O’Mara.
“League is totally different to championship but I suppose the fact we had five or six lads making their first real start the other day, the confidence from that will be massive, so hopefully we can build on that and head down to Cork and build again, that’s going to be a humongous challenge.”
