It’s hard to imagine how Sunday could have turned out worse for Tipperary. Losing to Limerick is obviously no great shame and certainly nothing new – their run without a win in the fixture has now stretched out to 10 matches. You have to go back to the 2019 Munster Championship for their last win over John Kiely’s side. Another log on the pile isn’t going to make the burn feel any more fierce.
No, the real misery for Tipp in the 15-point defeat was the feeling of inevitability that took hold. There was a sense, even at half-time, that all need not be lost. They were five-points down but Limerick had played with a gale at their backs and were by no means out of reach.
On a flat day, in a dull game, Tipp wouldn’t have needed much to get going. When a Noel McGrath effort came down off the post shortly after the break, all it would have taken was for Mark Kehoe to react quicker and a goal would have been a formality. But Seán Finn nipped in to clear. Within a couple of minutes, Kehoe had been replaced and Aaron Gillane had buried his goal at the other end. That was that.
For a full 15 minutes, Tipperary didn’t score a point from play. They didn’t pick up a yellow card. They didn’t really do very much of anything, other than to chase after Limerick who were now so comfortably in their groove that Kiely was able to take off Gearoid Hegarty, Cian Lynch and Kyle Hayes without missing a beat.
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“Our energy levels, I cannot understand it,” said Liam Cahill afterwards. “We just seem to be that little bit off the pace. I’m looking in at a team that were just hurling in hope. That is an awful place to be when you are coming into the lion’s den here. The All-Ireland champions in their backyard – you need to be absolutely convinced that you are going to take that ball.
“Whether it be in a ruck or out of the air or taking on your man, you just have to be so sure of what you are about. Again I say it, these boys are training fierce well but I don’t know what the case is of then coming to the matchday field, it just doesn’t seem to be happening for them.”
Cahill spoke of consequences ahead of the Waterford game on Saturday but it’s very difficult to work out where they go from here. Clare lost to Limerick too but were able to console themselves that they had been the better team for long periods. Even Cork, with their two defeats from two games, will know that they could have beaten Clare over the weekend.
Tipp have no such consolation. You can lose your first game and not lose your season. But you can’t not turn up. Cahill’s side were just so inoffensive in the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday, so lacking in personality. Far from rattling into their first game in the Munster Championship, they looked like a team playing out the string at the end of a bad year.
Between this and the league semi-final, they’ve lacked leaders. Seamus Kennedy has been a huge loss, clearly. But it was interesting that Dan McCormack, so often the soldier’s soldier down in the trenches, didn’t get off the bench against Limerick. And that Paddy Cadell, whose hard running and relentless tackling was one of the few bright spots in Colm Bonnar’s year, hasn’t played a minute of championship since 2022.
Attention will inevitably focus on Cahill now, ahead of his return to a rejuvenated Waterford. All the more so since he took a curious and needless swipe at Derek McGrath in his post-match interview.
“Waterford are a very athletic team,” Cahill said, unbidden. “Up to 18 months ago, they were branded as the second-best team in the country. Their former manager said whoever beats them goes up the steps of the Hogan Stand. That’s the reality of it. The same person, I haven’t heard sign nor light of him for the last 18 months but that’s there, it’s in print.”
It was a curious thing to bring up after a 15-point beating but presumably it’s something that stuck in his craw when he was Waterford manager and a pebble he hasn’t been able to get out of his shoe ever since. And maybe it betrayed the pressure he’s feeling too – Cahill badly needs a win in Walsh Park on Saturday, whatever about his Tipperary team.
His overall championship record as a senior intercounty manager isn’t bad at all – played 21, won nine, Lost 10, drew two. But his Munster Championship record is not good – played 12, won three, lost seven, drew two. If they don’t get a result in Walsh Park, it will mean one win from his first six Munster Championship games as Tipp manager. That’s hard to come back from.
They need to find something in the coming days or the year will be over very quickly.
