Making Tipperary competitive again is the ultimate target for this season

A New Year is usually synonymous with new beginnings, accompanied by renewed hopes and raised expectations for the season ahead – or maybe not. Tipperary’s stock is on the floor at the moment; our hurling expectations have never been lower heading into a new calendar.

We had hoped to get an early glimpse of panellists at Templemore on Saturday last, but Clare beat an early retreat from the venue, their management, it seems, unhappy with the frosty underfoot conditions. It led to many fans making a U-turn on their way to the game; the rest of us arrived to be greeted by the disappointing news.

The town goal area did look a bit icy but I’ve often seen games played in far worse conditions. One of the worst of the lot was the 2012 Munster club decider at Páirc Uí Chaoimh where Thurles Sarsfields beat De La Salle on a pitch that was frozen rock-solid throughout.

I’ve no doubt Saturday’s game would have been played if it was a Munster League tie but the voluntary nature of the venture made it easier for Clare to walk away. It was particularly disheartening for the hard-working committee who arranged the event - and the worthy charity it was designed to serve.

Anyway, there’s a game against Laois planned for the same venue on Tuesday January 14, which will be another fundraiser for Mary’s Meals; and there’s mention of a further game against Dublin ahead of league commencement on January 26.

All of this is set against the background of a very subdued mood in Tipperary hurling circles. Not since the famine years of the seventies have expectations been so low among the public. You even hear some wonder if the record of at least one All-Ireland win every decade will survive the 2020s.

It’s a bleak scenario, one that has been developing since 2019. As the golden generation of All-Ireland winners slipped away, the gaps they left behind remained unfilled. This winter ‘Bonner’ Maher and Dan McCormack joined the queue of retirees, so that Noel McGrath remains the last of the 2010 heroes still standing.

Others too are unavailable. Cathal Barrett is out of favour with the management and Barry Heffernan and Mark Kehoe have opted to travel this year. In the circumstances the impact of every defection is enlarged, given the shortage of comparable replacements.

It all leads to a renewed focus on our underage teams. There is a long-held view in Tipperary that underage happenings have an inevitable follow-through at senior level. The minor drought from 1959 to 1976, for example, was a major cause of the senior famine of the seventies.

Then, underage successes between 1976 and ’85 – four Under 21s and three minor wins – fuelled the senior breakthrough of the late eighties. More recently the minor double of 2006/07 was the main driver behind the senior prominence of the 2009/19 period.

However, a different dynamic appears to be at play now. Our underage achievements over the past decade have been decent, with three minor wins and two Under 21/20s. The reduction of the minor age to 17 probably dilutes its impact somewhat, but still, winning underage championships ought to have an impact at the higher level.

But has it? For the minors of 2022 and 2024 it’s still too early to make a judgement but previous minor and Under 21/20 wins over the past ten years haven’t yielded the dividend we had hoped for. Some players have come through, and they deserve recognition, but not enough in either quality or quantity.

It should lead to a certain reassessment of the underage model. Galway, for instance, have developed the knack of winning minor titles – ten since the turn of the century including four-in-a-row from 2017 to 2020 – but the pay-off at senior level has been very poor. The four-in-a-row teams, for example, have produced very few seniors and it’s notable that as a county they are re-evaluating the entire process.

Ultimately, underage success must be viewed as a grounding for potential seniors – and little else. It should never be an end game but rather part of a continuum where players are developed with an eye to a senior future. That should influence the type of players who are progressed through the ranks and it should also lead to significant co-ordination between the different management teams. But does it?

For the moment Liam Cahill and company are limited to what’s available. Their 45-man panel announced a few weeks back shows significant change from last year, with 16 new faces in the mix. That includes a handful of Under 20s who have been promoted, though nobody should be expecting wonders from players of such a young age.

Given financial constraints, seven of that panel will be released ahead of the league start, reducing the overall number to 38.

The management faces a particularly difficult task in trying to assemble a competitive team for the season ahead.

Liam Cahill spoke with characteristic honesty in a pre-Christmas interview on local radio, accepting in particular the failings and shortcomings from last year.

He faced criticism in 2024 for not developing a more stable lineout as the year unfolded. Too much chopping and changing in both positioning and personnel wasn’t helpful to overall team stability and the manager has accepted that criticism as valid. Expect a different approach this time.

Mind you, I also see the other side of that particular coin. It’s difficult to stick with players if they are not performing in a particular position. I guess trying to find the balance is the issue, being patient without being over-indulgent.

Liam Cahill was very strong on the lack of spirit shown by the team last year and this goes to the very heart of public annoyance. The Cork game was a particularly troubling experience, where too many seemed to raise the white flag. The Limerick match was similar.

Genuine fans can accept when the team isn’t good enough, but cannot tolerate a lack of spirit. On which point another look back at our minor win in 2024 would be instructive for all.

Incidentally, I’ve made no secret of my belief that James Woodlock should have been promoted to Under 20 this time. “There is a tide in the affairs of me which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”. Shakespeare had it right, the tide was with Woody, but we made the easy call rather than the right one.

Anyway, we’ll hope that both underage sides deliver in 2025 and thereby render the above criticism redundant.

So, what are Liam Cahill’s targets for 2025? The seven-team division 1A of the league will be brutally demanding; there are no soft touches in any of the six scheduled games, starting with Galway in Pearse Stadium on January 26. The top two qualify for the final, while the bottom pair will be relegated. There’s the first target: avoiding relegation.

Thereafter, the Munster championship is another bearpit. Getting out of the province seems a very ambitious (unreachable?) target.

Realistically, people wonder where we might find any victory to avoid finishing bottom, as in 2024. A modest target then but surely reflective of our present rating, where the bookies have us second from the bottom, marginally ahead of Waterford.

More important than winning, however, will be the nature of our performances. That’s the ultimate target for 2025. It’s not so much a case of making Tipperary great again as making Tipperary competitive again. If Liam Cahill and colleagues achieve that, then 2025 will have been a success.

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