
‘It's a fine balance' – Tipperary GAA selector dismisses ‘public perception' that Liam Cahill ‘flogs his players'
Cahill has faced claims of pushing his teams too hard since he led
Championship
.
2
Liam Cahill has been accused of pushing teams too hard
Credit: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
2
Tipperary selector Declan Laffan defended Cahill
Credit: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
In his role as a pundit on an episode of the Smaller Fish podcast, ex-Offaly forward Brian Carroll claimed Cahill's teams 'run out of steam' in the
summer
.
But after a challenging first two seasons at the helm in Tipp, they are just one win away from appearing in a first All-Ireland SHC showpiece since 2019.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's semi-final against
'Look, let the public think what they like. We just have to worry about what we do.
Read More on GAA
'We probably didn't get it right last year. We probably tapered it back a little bit too much and maybe suffered in the latter end of
the games
where teams pulled away from us and we just hadn't it in the lungs to stay with them.
'It's a fine balance getting it right and it's even the same you'll see coming into big games like this, match week, how you tailor training during the week that you don't end up flat. Do you do an hour? Do you do 40 minutes?
'Everything has to be tailored properly and that's where your S&C guys come in and make sure that things are done right.'
Tipp have played twice since Kilkenny's last outing, which saw the Cats overcome
Most read in GAA Hurling
Cahill's men eased past
Kilkenny will hope the four-week lay-off will stand to them in their first Championship clash with their
neighbours
since Tipp won the Liam MacCarthy Cup decider six years ago.
'Lots of fight' - RTE GAA pundits react to Sean O'Shea's 'very interesting' interview after Kerry dethrone Armagh
But Laffan said: 'The two-week break after Galway is ideal . . .
'I think it's worked well for us. If we win, we'll say we have it right. If we don't, somebody will find fault. There's not much we can do about that though.'
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The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
If Padraic Joyce wants to begin again with Galway, he needs to find a way to begin better
'FAILURE IS THE opportunity to begin again more intelligently,' once reckoned Henry Ford. Nice sugary words, but Ford was in the business of making cars, not championship-winning football teams. In sport, more often than not, failure is not an opportunity, just a place where you get to step off and away when you are a manager. Inside 20 hours last weekend, two genuine football icons were left eyeballing that reality. Dessie Farrell blinked instantly, but Padraic Joyce played the 'time is not now ' card often favoured by the out of luck and out of time bainisteoir, but it is likely he did so with reason. Two men who are weaved deep into the narrative of their respective counties, championship winning players on the pitch and iconic figures to those off it; for all that they had in common in that unwanted shared space last weekend, there is a chasm in achievement and perspective separating them. It was Farrell who invited the greater sympathy, visibly choking with emotion as he spoke about leaving behind players who he came to know first as boys and has now left them behind as aged veterans, but there is little need for tears to be shed on his part. All he truly lost last weekend was a game of ball, one that was not gravely consequential for a couple of reasons. Firstly, even if Dublin had beaten Tyrone, the road ahead would likely have been short, although it may have stretched slightly if Con O'Callaghan recovered his full fitness. Simply put, Dublin were not good enough to win the Sam Maguire. - Legacy - More significantly, failure is not something that can be pinned on Farrell. He now stands only behind Jim Gavin and Kevin Heffernan in the pantheon of Dublin's most successful managers, which is not a bad place to be. When you consider that this was a job in which many believed he was set up to fail, inheriting a team that had already planted its flag on the five-in-a-row summit, that he squeezed two All-Irelands out of a sated team and a stalled production line was, in many ways, a stunning achievement. Deciding to stay with the team for a final season as a line of generational talents left was as much a final act of care as a declaration of ambition. Advertisement The future of Dublin in the short term is uncertain, even if Ger Brennan's announcement this week that he was stepping away from Louth will invite many to fill in the obvious blank. Thing is, Dublin football's pressing need is less about finding a manager for its showcase team and more about weaponising its huge resources, financial, coaching and, above all, playing numbers, to ensure a flow of high-end players which right now is not there. In that sense, whether Farrell stayed or went has little impact on where Dublin go, but in Galway's case, whether Joyce sticks or twists most certainly does, both on a personal level and for the county's short-term future. The likelihood that decision will be left to him is validation of his five seasons in charge, especially in a county that was once not renowned for its stability on that front. (In the last six years of his storied playing career, Joyce played under four different managers.) In fairness, his predecessor Kevin Walsh brought stability but what Joyce brought went beyond that. It is easily forgotten now, but when he declared his ambition to win the All-Ireland on his appointment in 2019, the sniggers right around the country were audible. Four Connacht titles and two All-Ireland final appearances later, talk of Galway being the best in the land has long stopped being a laughing matter, but the fact remains that Joyce's manifesto has not been delivered on. 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an hour ago
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Irish Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Ger Brennan has prospered where others faltered - he's earned shot at Dublin job
We haven't heard from Ger Brennan yet on the exact reasoning behind his decision to quit Louth, so we can only surmise for now. The likelihood is that, at the very least, he was leaning towards leaving before word emerged on Saturday evening that Dessie Farrell was vacating the Dublin job. Indeed, there's every chance that he may have left Louth regardless of Farrell's intentions. But, however it's all come about, now that there is an opening and Brennan is a free agent, drawing a line between the two is irresistible. Brennan, who turned 40 on the day he announced his Louth departure, will almost certainly be approached by the Dublin county board and, given the dearth of other credible candidates, you'd imagine that the job would be his if he wants it. Yet, it's a reflection how he has done in Louth that the role he is leaving is, strictly in footballing terms, arguably more appealing than that to which he is now being strongly linked. Louth have just won the Leinster title and appear to have enough talent emerging from underage teams to kick on from here. Dublin, meanwhile, are being weakened year on year by retirements, a trend that will likely be maintained this coming winter. And, clearly, the emerging talent is not sufficient to sustain them as a serious force at the back end of the Championship for now at least. But then Brennan has proven himself adept at confounding such perceptions. When Mickey Harte jumped ship to Derry two years ago, the room for further improvement in Louth appeared minimal and, indeed, the likelihood seemed that they would drop out of Division Two and lose further ground on Dublin in Leinster, having been beaten by 21 points by them in the 2023 provincial final. Brennan was taking over from a man who had essentially told the players that juice wasn't worth the squeeze, yet he managed to galvanise them and harness the momentum that had been built under Harte to take Louth to a higher plain again. They were competitive against Dublin in last year's Leinster final and reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the first time. This year they won the provincial title for the first time since 1957. There was almost an inevitability about their struggles in the All-Ireland series on the back of such a historic breakthrough, and maybe Brennan, after two full-on years, couldn't summon the energy to take one step back in order to take two forward in reinforcing the side so that they could really challenge beyond Leinster. But the prospect of managing his native county would surely reinvigorate him. Often, managerial appointments owe as much to timing as anything else, and Brennan is hot right now. He may not be when it comes around again. So many ex-Dublin footballers have struggled when managing outside the county, effectively blowing their chances of landing the big job. But Brennan has prospered and has now earned his chance.