Liam Sheedy is back at the helm of Tipperary hurling.
The 2010 All-Ireland winning manager has returned to the role ahead of the 2019 season and will be looking to revive the fortunes of a county that endured a difficult and frustrating 2018.
This past season was very bleak for the Premier county as their championship dreams came to an end in early June when they failed to make it through the Munster championship round-robin.
Following this, Michael Ryan stepped down as manager of the side and left the door open for Sheedy to come back in.
The return will mark Sheedy’s second coming as manager of his native county and one man who knows something about returning to an old job is former Galway minor manager Mattie Murphy who was awarded the special merit award at last weekend’s 2018 Electric Ireland Minor Star Awards.
Murphy believes that Sheedy’s appointment is the right one for Tipperary, but success will hinge on who he has around him in the backroom team.
“I think it’s a positive for Tipp. He had a very good working relationship with them (the last time).
“It’ll depend on who he puts in his backroom team. Is he going to be able to get Eamon O’Shea to go back and join him? There’s a rumour down our side that he’s going to join another backroom team. I don’t know.
“It seems to be now that whoever can get the strength and conditioning and fitness coaches and all this in (that succeeds).
Much has been made of Tipperary in the media following Michael Ryan’s refusal to speak to the media throughout the 2017 season. Murphy believes the problems in Tipperary stem from the players in the squad, he feels they are dealing with a lot of egos.
“There’s a lot of egos inside the Tipp camp at the moment.
“There are a few fellas that need to be told on no uncertain terms, ‘You either behave or there’s no place here for you’. Because they’re hurlers above the ordinary, it’s not that easy to do it. Ultimately, it’ll be the breaking point.
“He either gets them lads to toe the line or he works without them.
“You can’t tolerate them. By holding onto them, it’s short-term gain. By getting rid of them, you’re laying down your marker.”
Indeed, this seems to be a widely held opinion about this Tipperary team – that they’ve their heads in the air. One of Marty Morrissey’s first questions of Liam Sheedy on the day he returned as Tipp manager was how he was going to manage these “discipline” issues.
Liam Sheedy has revealed that after initially turning down the Tipperary role, the lure of a second spell proved too strong.
"As time moved on, there was a burning desire in me that just wasn’t going away. I came to the table late, but I’m delighted I did." pic.twitter.com/dFS82vxB65
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) September 24, 2018
Sheedy reacted by saying he has never encountered such problems himself and the fact that these rumours and these opinions are now accepted in the public domain goes to show the power and danger of the modern WhatsApp culture – which in this case seems to be built on lies.
Because if there were discipline problems, then Tipperary wouldn’t be the second most successful hurling team in Ireland this millennium.
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