TIPPERARY MADE THE RIGHT CAHILL TO STICK WITH LIAM

We'll start with the question about Liam Cahill’s future - because that's where the Tipperary revival started too.

- By GARRY DOYLE

In the windowless corridor underneath the main stand at Semple Stadium, only minutes had passed since Tipp's 2024 Championship had ended.

Their record, one draw and three defeats, was appalling; the 15-point loss to Limerick and 18-point hammering by Cork accentuating the negative gloom that hung over the team.

"Are you considering your future?" Cahill was asked.

His answer was defiant. No, he would not go, he said. And yes, the team could turn a corner.

But no one really believed him until they met Clare again in the Championship this summer. Before then, the only certainty in hurling was that the Tipp Munster Championship campaign was going to be a misery, just as it had been in every other year of this decade.

Then over eight days in May, Tipp beat the Banner and Waterford, as many provincial victories as in the previous five seasons.

A year earlier Cahill had been forced to talk about Tipp's good name ‘being on the line’. Significantly, though, the one thing that wasn't on the line was his job - which he knew was safe.

And now that the story of Tipp's revival can be told, we need to remember that.

Jittery county boards would have shown Cahill the door. Tipp's board, however, had faith and fourteen months on, they have been vindicated.

STAY CALM AND CARRY ON

For a county like Tipperary, anything less than an All-Ireland is deemed unsatisfactory, yet they got used to unsatisfactory years after winning their 28th Championship in 2019.