TIPPERARY MINOR HURLING manager Liam Cahill has reopened the dual debate in the Premier County – admitting that “it’s the elephant in the room.”
Cahill was asked about Ger Loughnane’s All-Ireland day comments when he suggested that some of the Tipperary players were footballers trying to be hurlers.
Cahill’s minor hurlers lost to Galway as his starting team featured five players who lined out against Kerry in the football decider a fortnight later.
Jack Skehan, who came on as sub in the hurling decider, was also full-back on the Charlie McGeever’s football team.
And Cahill hinted strongly on Tipp FM that he is against the dual experiment at minor intercounty level.
The former Allstar forward has been handed a fresh two-year term as Tipp minor hurling – with a review after the 2016 campaign.
But Cahill insists that he needs as much access as possible to his players in order to go one better next year.
Cahill said: “It’s the elephant in the room the whole time if we’re really being honest about it.
“The Tipperary public know exactly where my views are on it, even prior to the All-Ireland, at the start of last year.
“Ger Loughnane’s comments were hurtful to say the least but there could have been a lot in it too in the way our demeanour changed in the latter stages of that All-Ireland final, where we looked very heavy-legged and lethargic in a lot of the stuff we did.
“There’s definitely something in that that we need to look at in regard to the amount of players that are opting for both codes.
“There’s no place to hide in Croke Park, we found that out the hard way.”
Cahill added: “My job is to get success and develop these players.
“To do that, to be honest, you have to have your players as often as possible.
“It’s the availability of these players, not the managing of their physical preparation or anything to that extent.
“It’s when you haven’t your players on a regular basis to get the message across that you need to get to be really competitive in the big stadium like Croke Park or Semple Stadium, when it comes to the real nitty-gritty of Munster championship and All-Ireland finals.
“That’s basically what happened towards the latter stages of the championship, where (coach) Michael Bevans had his players available to him for one training session, where collectively we could actually work on something together.
“I know if Brian Cody was told in Kilkenny that he’d only have his players for one session before an All-Ireland, there would be fair spitting on the hands and fair giving out done.
“I’m not comparing myself to Brian Cody or anything to that effect but to prepare a team properly, you have to have your players regularly.
“You have to be sowing the seeds, the proper message on a regular basis because unfortunately with minors, it’s a lot of repetitive stuff and it takes a while longer than the U21s or seniors for the penny to drop.”
A demanding run of dual fixtures caught up with Tipperary at the business end of the campaign, Cahill believes.
“I’m not saying we would have beaten Galway on the day but as the match kicked on we did seem to deteriorate a lot in our sharpness and ability to cover ground. We looked a bit lacklustre and lethargic.”
Staunton has carried the Mayo ladies since the days of the all Ireland win are there any other players matching her scoring be rate? Suppose being from Mayo and the lack of a cock and balls is enough for people to be ignorant of her talent! And I wouldn’t be the biggest fan of the ladies game but I appreciate a great player when I see one.
Is she better than Rena Buckley and Briedge Corkery? As GAA women over the two sports I rank them higher and as better all rounders.
A woman footballer that no one outside of Mayo ever heard of in the top 10 sports people in the history of our sport – yea makes sense
No one outside of Mayo has heard of her? Anyone that follows Gaa knows full well who Cora Staunton is.
If you keep up to date with sport in general in Ireland you will have heard of her.This dosnt make you look arrogant saying that………it makes you look dumb.You can throw out names like Henry Shefflin,Christy Ring,Sonia O Sullivan and many more for their dominance in their own sports.But Cora is by far the most dominant sports player that I have ever seen.No disrespect at all to our other great sportspeople though,but in fairness she is an impeccable player
So just because I don’t follow women’s GAA – I find it unwatchable tbh, and I haven’t heard of this lady who I’m sure is a brilliant footballer and great ambassador for the game, that makes me dumb ?? Why don’t you walk down the main st of any town in this country and show them a picture of her and ask them who she is – Would you get 2 out of 10 correct answers? Maybe. All I’m saying is that she wouldn’t be in any real argument to be included in a list of the top 10 sports people to come out of this island. Your assertion is dumb – not my initial comment.
I dunno I wouldn’t rate her as even the greatest female footballer, what about briege corkery? amount of All Irelands that woman has puts any gaa allstar to shame.
“She wouldn’t be in any real argument to be included in a list of the top 10 sports people to come out of this island”………now that is dumb! Just because she isn’t famous doesn’t mean that she is excluded.If you forget about who we read about and see in the papers and just think about pure sporting ability then I would say that she fully deserves at least a top 10 place in Irish sport.She made her inter county debut aged 13 or 14!You don’t know anything about her so I don’t know why your even going through the bother of saying that she doesn’t deserve the praise she deserves.
I didn’t say she doesn’t deserve any praise she gets – I’m sure she’s gets plenty. No sports person who excels in a minority sport will get the praise they deserve.Why ? Because not enough people care. It’s not fair but that’s the way it is.
Robert, you have to be a Dub and one of the new breed Dubs, ya know the lads supporting them since 2010 ? Tell me I’m right : )