Liam Sheedy: We just can’t presume that Tipperary people will always talk hurling
Stadium In Cahill Manager Man Tipperary Thurles Pic: The Arena: Munster Clare Semple Ryan/sportsfile Before P With Fbd At Liam Michael In Clash Arrives
There is a tendency in life to reach for extremes, to paint a picture close to rock bottom when things are not going well. And equally to presume that good times, when they come, will roll for all eternity. With Tipp hurling, those tendencies go into overdrive.
The reality is Tipp people were facing up to a period of transition, as a cluster of our greatest ever players neared the end. But I guess not many expected transition to look like this. One point from four games and -36 scoring difference. Just 12 months earlier we headed into the final round robin match seemingly destined for a Munster final after three really strong performances. But since that loss to Waterford, the trajectory has plunged in the wrong direction.
So discussion in the county is downbeat. And the popular prediction going around is that our record of a senior All-Ireland win in every decade is about to end.
That’s nothing to do with the U20s’ defeat Saturday night. Like the minors, these young lads lifted spirits in recent weeks, and lost no honour in defeat to a super Offaly team that have gladdened the hearts of every hurling person in the country.
But the overall mood is pessimistic. I suppose people my vintage and older remember well that period between ‘73 and ‘83 when we couldn’t even win a match. That kind of bleak run is fast tracked these days. We’re now on a streak of one Munster win in 12.
These are awful weeks for management and players and the person most under the microscope in these situations is the bainisteoir. There’s no better job when things are going well, but when performances dip it is a lonely and tough place.
Liam Cahill was an outstanding player for Tipp over many years from when he burst onto the scene in the mid-90s. I had the pleasure of sharing a dressing room with him for a few of those years. He made the seamless transition into management and was the most successful underage manager of us all, winning minor, U20 and U21 All-Irelands, which is some feat.
I always had a great working relationship with Liam when I was involved at senior and he was with the 20s. A very passionate hurling man, over the last 10 years he has managed to transmit that passion and energy into his teams on many occasions. So nobody will be hurting more than Liam after the 2024 season and I am sure he has been playing it around in his head. What can he learn and what needs to change to get the bus back on track in 2025?
At the end of each season, I always posed myself two questions. 1. Do I still have the dressing room? 2. Am I the right man to take this group forward and have I the energy and wherewithal to get a performance improvement that delivers results?
Back in 2003, I was part of a management team with Michael Doyle that was removed after one season following a heavy defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final. That was gutting, but I would say it was down to us losing the dressing room. In that situation there are no winners.
Tipp appear to have a real issue right now with consistency, both individually and collectively. Look at most of the players on the panel and you can pick a given day where they performed really well. But Ronan Maher apart, it would be hard to find players who had a consistent Munster Championship. It was the inability to deliver even three out of four consistent displays that really hurt us. Some of our players are operating at a shadow of their potential and that’s concerning and needs remediation.
I know there is a running commentary that Sheedy never played the young lads. The reality is that I played and brought on the players I felt gave us the best chance to deliver a winning performance, which is my job. Reality is that three years after my departure we are still calling on Noelie and Bonner to lead the line. WHY? I can only assume because they continue to put their hands up in training. As is the case in every setup, you play the best 20 players you feel will get you the result.
The 2010 team had five 21-year-olds start with two more coming on. The bottom line is age never comes into it if you have earned the right through consistent performances at training.
The minors and 20s offer green shoots of hope. It’s encouraging there appears to be a conveyor belt of teams coming. It’s a platform to build on. But that’s all it is, a platform. Everyone is well aware now it doesn’t guarantee senior success. The Limerick teams in the early 2000s never delivered on the big stage and the brilliant Clare team 10 years later managed to get their hands on only one. Of Liam’s underage teams, he no longer has the services of Jerome Cahill or Ger Browne, while the biggest leader in that group, Dillon Quirke, is sadly no longer with us.
Watching our teams closely, we appear to have players coming through with excellent work ethic and high skill levels. But I am concerned that we are seriously lacking when it comes to pace and power and that this area needs attention to meet the challenges of senior inter-county. You will have to match the power of Limerick or the pace of Cork to enable your hurling to shine through.
Some of that comes back to facilities and expertise… and money. No gloomy conversation in Tipp these days gets far without that thorny subject coming up. It's a sad situation to see clubs being asked to donate €1000 a head to prop up county expenditure. While our spiritual home and the overall home of hurling needs an investment of millions rather than thousands.
Alongside it, Dr Morris Park also needs money spent. While it has played its part over the last 15 years, the facility is certainly nothing like a centre of excellence that would attract and retain our best players.
In Limerick, you can plainly see the impact of JP’s generosity. Would this great Offaly story have gathered momentum this quickly without Shane Lowry’s help? Tipperary would strongly benefit from one or more of our hugely successful business people getting involved in a Premier Rising project over the next decade.
But maybe the biggest concern of all right now is the sense of apathy creeping in among supporters. There’s just a worrying disconnect between the team and our people. We’re not traveling to games, we’re barely showing up in Thurles. That’s blaming nobody, it’s simply pointing out a rot that needs to be fixed. I just don’t detect any urgency out there to grasp it.
We hear plenty about how the GAA is alienating an older generation, and that’s another story, but in Tipp are we doing enough to stay relevant to the next generation? Whatever it takes, social media, events, school visits, we just can’t presume that Tipperary people will always talk hurling. Because the only thing worse than Tipp people overreacting to victory and defeat would be no reaction at all.