Winning Munster is in Tipp it’s not good

The Premier County demands more than just provincial successes and Michael Cahill is comfortable with those levels of expectations

FOR a week in 2010, Michael Cahill could have been forgiven for waking up and doing his best Leonardo di Caprio impression on the set of Titanic. Tipperary were kings of the hurling world and the future looked blue and gold.

On the second Sunday in September Cahill won an All-Ireland senior hurling title. Six days later, he was mobbed by Tipperary supporters on the field in Thurles as an All-Ireland Under 21 trophy was paraded.

As for the Tuesday morning in between the hurling pandemonium? He just happened to graduate from University College Cork with a degree in Sports Studies and Physical Education. The week that was in it, he actually went straight from college to training with the county U21 team.

‘It was the perfect week, probably one of the best weeks of my life,’ he says thinking back. ‘It was hard to appreciate at the time at 20, 21 years of age.’

It was hard to appreciate because it was all coming so easy.

In the intervening years, Kilkenny have been the team to keep Tipp holed below the water line. Bar last year’s semi-final against Galway, it’s the Cats who have knocked their neighbours out of every Championship since 2010.

‘It was a great period for us,’ adds Cahill of 2010. ‘It seemed like we had things set up. The whole change of management thing didn’t help, we’ve been chopping and changing and that didn’t help.

‘Since then we’ve drawn a blank. Maybe if we were another county that would die for a Munster it would be different but you are judged on All-Irelands.’

The years since have not only left emotional scars but physical ones. Cahill moved from PE teaching to being a sales representative on the road, Now, he’s studying physiotherapy in the Royal College of Surgeons, in part as a means to understanding the body after being put through the wringer himself in recent seasons.

Living in Harold’s Cross on Dublin’s southside and being a student again at the age of 27 is a different experience. ‘I’ve one year done this year. Tough going. Hard being back. Different the second time around.

‘When you’re a young fella, you’re there for the craic. When you’re paying fees, accommodation in Dublin, you know all about it. You’re there for a serious reason. Not working, it’s hard not having money coming in, a regular wage.’

The flip-side is the benefit to his body. He’s not traversing the roads on business, stiffening up. The flexible schedule that comes with college living leaves him with the summer off to get Championship ready, bar working on the family farm just outside Thurles.

It’s a frightening statistic that three regular members of the Tipperary full-back line have all had hip surgery for similar problems: Paddy Stapleton, James Barry and Cahill himself in January 2015.

He explains how the rigours of the modern game have taken their toll early. ‘I was repping for two years and my body kind of broke down. It was probably from sitting in the one position for so long and then trying to go training full belt.

‘I knew coming up to the operation there was something wrong, for a year or two. It was tightening up my hip flexors which in turn was tightening up my hamstrings and groins.

‘It’s very frustrating when you’re in there and you just can’t get it right. You’re pushing yourself so hard. It breaks you down. It’s hard mentally as well.’

It’s one reason why he welcomed the new deal between the GAA and Gaelic Players Association that sets aside money for surgeries for inter-county players.

‘It’s good when you consider what lads are putting in and some of them are coming out at the end of their careers nearly crippled. Some of these hips are gone too far. Some lads will have arthritis no matter what. The guy who did my hip in Whitfield Clinic said that a lot more GAA guys’ hips are just so bad that they have to give it up.’

He can see players getting full hip replacements in their 30s the way things are going. ‘I’d say definitely in their 30s. That’s very possible because a lot of your playing is done in your 20s and lads will probably persist any way for the sake of being involved.’

The full-back line has been one of Tipperary’s main areas of strength en route to this year’s Munster title, Cahill slowly rediscovering his best form after a couple of torturous seasons when his body let him down. A few sticky moments in the Munster quarterfinal against Cork’s Alan Cadogan aside, he’s happy with his form.

‘I knew myself because I’m a hard judge on myself. I know if I don’t go well. He got three points that day, did go well. I hadn’t played a full match in so long I was happy to get through it injury free, then we got the result on top of it. As long as the team won, I don’t care. I stayed on the field and got my job done.’

In a general sense, he knows Tipperary need to kick on and bridge the gap to 2010. ‘Things look like they are going well for us, but look, I’ve got four or five Munster medals now and that’s all well and good, but it’s what you do after that… and the answer in Tipperary is we haven’t done a whole lot. We’re well aware of that this year.

‘It’s great to win Munster – you can’t take anything away from that – but you are judged on what happens at the end of the year. We come from a county that expects to win things, that’s it and you have to accept it. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but you wouldn’t want thin skin.’

That sentiment is echoed in the words of his captain Brendan Maher who this week described Tipperary as ‘the most criticised team in hurling over the past number of years’.

Cahill admits the years of coming up close in the All-Ireland series – only beaten by a late, late point by Galway in last year’s semifinal – have been tough.

‘There has been heartbreak in our camp. We’ve been on the wrong side of bad things, haven’t had the luck that goes with it. For sure there’s serious motivation there for us.

‘Galway have had heartbreak, too, probably should have won in 2012 [All-Ireland final]. They will have that in the back of their heads. ‘Defeats are driving every team on. ‘Most years Kilkenny are in the All-Ireland final, but for now we have to put them out of our heads. Because if we start to look at them we won’t be there ourselves, Galway will beat us.’