After Limerick played Tipperary in the 2024 league Liam Cahill came in to the press conference, deflated by a beating more bruising than the numbers pretended. In these settings over the years Cahill has invariably been lucid and plausible and frank. No short answers, no fatuous attempts to distort the plain reality, no special pleading.
In the middle of the match Limerick had engineered a nine-point swing without the trampoline effect of a goal and Tipp were increasingly stressed by the simple act of hanging on. The one-point margin of Limerick’s victory was a white lie, common in the league.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Cahill said afterwards. “Limerick didn’t do anything that Limerick don’t do every day they go out. They didn’t come with anything extra special. I can’t say we didn’t know what was coming but we just weren’t able to counteract it again, call a spade a spade. We have to go away and find the answers.”
At the root of Cahill’s response to that match was repetitive strain. During John Kiely’s 10 seasons as Limerick manager, nobody has sat that examination more often than Cahill. Only the honours paper was available.
Over a six-year period as manager of Waterford and now Tipp, Cahill has faced Limerick 12 times in league and championship. In that time his record is one win, two draws and nine defeats. The only win came in the boiled-down league of 2021, when Cahill was manager of Waterford and Limerick had a man sent off before half-time.
When Limerick were in their pomp, their dominance was characterised by trans
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