This weekend's Division 1B fixture in Walsh Park comes with a number of plotlines. Waterford manager Liam Cahill decided last August against returning home to take over Tipperary when the offer was clearly there, his decision to stay across the border for a third year an obvious lift for morale there.
Cahill had led Tipp to under-age All-Irelands but even when questioned after last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Limerick - at a time when the vacancy at home was known - he paid tribute to his players.
“It’s hard to know yet but look, these fellas are very hard to walk away from because they’re a really honest bunch of fellas.”
The players responded in kind.
“We were worried for a while whether he would go or not,” said All Star nominee Dessie Hutchinson some weeks later, “but it shows the confidence he has in us and we need to repay him for that faith and really work hard for him this coming season.”
So, on Sunday Cahill sends out his team to take on players with whom he will be familiar from his days in charge of the Tipperary under-20s and under-21s.
Brian Flannery is an expert on the Tipperary-Waterford interface. An under-21 All-Ireland winner with his own county, Tipp, he moved to Waterford, captained his adopted county and was on the team that won its first Munster title in 39 years.
As a hurling pundit, he has observed the positive impact Cahill has had in Waterford.
“They’ve been singing his praises for the vote of confidence. If you look at it in broader terms, results in Derek McGrath’s last year were disappointing and the following year under Páraic Fanning as well. They had a couple of difficult years back to back.
“Even when Liam came in initially he’d had success with minors and under-20s so he was the right man in that regard at the right time. He was seen as something of a disciplinarian. The current team has its genesis in the 2013 All-Ireland winning minors and the 21s from 2016. Those players were coming into their prime and the obvious question was, could we get more out of them?
“When you look at the past couple of years there has been improvement on improvement and the panel has been getting that bit deeper and deeper. Waterford now appear to have greater options than a lot of counties and you’d have to give Liam Cahill credit for a lot of that.”
Championship
He also had an immediate impact on their championship fortunes. The county had failed to emerge from the Munster round-robin in either of the years to date it was played. Since then the county has been involved at the sharp end of both All-Ireland championships.
“They’ve gone from not being able to win a game to an unbeaten run at Walsh Park,” says Flannery, “as well as an All-Ireland final, two semi-finals and a Munster final. That’s a lot of big game experience that a lot of players now have. It was hugely important that Liam came back and Mikey Bevans (coach) with him.
“It was a vote of confidence and perceived as such. He won’t say it openly but I imagine he sees an All-Ireland in this team.”
He wasn’t too surprised at Cahill’s decision to pass up on the Tipperary job, especially as it didn’t entail a permanent rejection.
“I’m sure he hasn’t given up on managing Tipperary at some stage but he’s parked the ambition for a while. You could make an argument that Waterford are farther down the track in terms of their evolution than Tipperary, who look to be in transition.
“Look at the spine of the Waterford team and where they are: Conor Prunty, a current All Star full-back, Tadhg de Búrca, former All Star centre-back, Jamie Barron, an All Star in the centre of the field, Austin Gleeson, All Star centre forward and Stephen Bennett, All Star at full-forward.
“There’s a huge certainty there - pillars you can build a team around. With Tipp, do we know who’d going to play three, six, 11, 14 for Tipperary? Probably not, not with certainty.”
The man who did take the Tipperary manager’s role, Colm Bonnar is coincidentally well known in Waterford having served as a selector with his adopted county, including managements under whom Flannery played.
“Colm has probably been living longer in Waterford than he ever was in Tipperary. His involvement with the college (Waterford IT), as a selector with both Gerald McCarthy and Justin (McCarthy) goes back a long way. I think he was glad to get the opportunity to be the number one in his own county even if the job looks to be a challenging one.”
Plus the teams will be back in just a few weeks on Easter Sunday for the first of this year’s championship round robins.
