Tipperary manager Liam Cahill disappointed and also relieved after thrilling game
'Had we been beaten today, we couldn’t have any excuses with the way we struggled for that period of time in the second half'
“This championship can take a lot of twists and turns yet before the competition is out.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t see out the match, to be honest”.
That was Tipperary manager Liam Cahill’s reaction after Sunday’s gripping Munster Senior Hurling Championship game at Azzurri Walsh Park in Waterford, which ended in a draw.
His team had led by 11 points at half-time, and were in front by a goal as the game entered added time, but were still pegged back by the home team.
“How are we after that? Disappointed maybe not to win the game, but relieved to get something out of it as well.
“I’d imagine that it was an exciting game to look at, loads of quality, plenty of mistakes as well, loads of excitement, but it's the Munster championship. That’s what you expect from this competition now.
“We will go away from today ourselves and get our head around the few areas we need to improve on. But hats off to Waterford and great credit to our boys as well. They went two down, (it was a) bit like the dam had burst and everything was gone, they came back again and went three out again.
“(It was) really good character from our boys and you know there’s a couple of big matches coming again. We have a couple of weeks now to get our heads around the Clare game (on Saturday evening, May 16), which will be a vital game as well”.
Did he sense at half-time that Waterford were going to come back and hit them hard at the start of the second half in the way they did?
“Ah yeah, you talk about it, try to visualise it, try to prepare your players for it, but when the time comes it (the game) takes a life of its own and we knew that the second half was going to be all out. It’s just that Waterford hurt us in so many areas, like if we had an option to bring on a few other subs, we could have done it. We seemed to be labouring in so many areas and trying to get a handle on all this Waterford movement and attacking in droves, and getting onto breaks and what have you.
“It was really frantic. Thankfully we got a handle on it with a number of substitutions and tried to stem the tide a little bit and kick for home”.
Regarding the four changes before the game from the team listed to start, were injuries a factor?
“No, not necessarily, it was down to form. In our set-up, it’s the next man up if things don’t run your way on a championship day or any day for that matter. The competition is really good. We had a few little things, like knocks and that that we needed to get our heads around. We didn’t do too much surgery on our team from a PR perspective.
“The new rule with the team being released at 12pm on a Friday is really difficult, because we have our team meetings on a Friday leading into a Sunday game, so being able to get the players in the meantime would have been quite difficult to announce the decisions that we have made, so we let the same team to print. It’s not ideal, but with the short run-in it was difficult.
“The changes were made on the back of the previous Sunday's performances, trying to look at areas to improve on and get the personnel on to try and improve the areas that let us down.
“We are on the same number of points as we were at the same time last year (after two games). We will take a lot of confidence out of today. We had to come with a big performance after last Sunday and we got that today, (we were) a little bit patchy in the second half for too long of a period again, something similar as what happened against Cork last weekend. A lot of players are coming into good form as we head into the business end of the championship.
“We need to work on the period after half-time when seven or eight players are struggling at the one time. If we can get our heads around that we will be really really competitive. Had we been beaten today, we couldn’t have any excuses with the way we struggled for that period of time in the second half.
“It’s a great challenge to try and beat Clare at home. Semple Stadium is home to us but it’s home to everybody really in the Munster championship. I think that’s well versed. Our home record isn’t where we would like it to be, but having said that we will come ready for Clare, no more than they will be ready for us.
“It will be a really exciting encounter and both teams will have to win”.