PREVIEW: Tipperary's 2025 campaign gets up and running against visiting All-Ireland champions

It’s been a long wait for Liam Cahill, the Tipperary players and the team’s supporters but after a shortened 2024 championship innings and an eight month wait, Tipperary’s senior hurlers will return to action with their first game of the 2025 season this coming Saturday evening.

Pairc Shilean in Templemore will host Tipperary’s first game of the year against All-Ireland champions Clare and with pre-season competitions off the table for 2025, these games will be the only chance for teams to get up to speed for the National League which gets going at the end of the month.

A recent interview from Tipperary manager Liam Cahill highlighted a re-think on the part of the management team from last year, with Cahill admitting the need to settle on a team, at least towards to middle and end of the National League.

That will give some added meaning to these ‘challenge’ games over the next three weeks, as Cahill will use these games along with what he sees in training games to try and whittle down what is a very youthful and new look training panel.

The inclusion of five U20s will hopefully inject fresh energy and exuberance into a squad that will have doubts after a tough 2024, with Darragh McCarthy and Sam O’Farrell the most obvious duo that could see plenty of minutes during the National League.

Aaron O’Halloran and Oisin O’Donoghue had stellar years too with the latter in particular having a meteoric rise to be included, starring with the U20s and his club Cashel King Cormacs. O’Donoghue though - like Darragh McCarthy last year - has two years left at U20 level and will need to be carefully juggled between the two grades.

Conor Martin is the surprise inclusion but when you look at the profile of player Tipperary have been crying out for in recent years, his pace, direct running and workrate will add plenty to the mix; albeit, he is still slight and will need to come on physically to be in the mix for minutes.

Overall, the 45-man strong panel has a total of 13 players in for the first time, along with some returning faces in Dylan Walsh and Gavin O’Halloran.

Whatever about the new faces and the impact they can/could make, the established players from the 2018 & 2019 All-Ireland U20 and U21 winning teams need to become the foundations for the team going forward.

Bryan O’Mara, Gearoid O’Connor, Jake Morris, Craig Morgan and their ilk need to start delivering on their potential to fill the void of experience that has departed in the last two years.

Cahill admitted that this is a rebuild, but the length of time it will take for Tipperary to compete again will depend on the aforementioned group and the conditioning to compete week-on-week in Munster, which was sorely lacking last year.

The team is at a low ebb and a good start to the year will be vitally important, even games like Saturday’s.