Waterford manager Liam Cahill was concerned about his team ahead of the All Ireland final showdown with Limerick after an in-house match didn't go the way he planned.
“We trained really poorly on the Sunday before the All Ireland," Cahill told WLR's Lár Na Páirce show on Friday. "We had a match among ourselves and it was really worrying. To be honest, there were alarm bells for me leaving. I don’t know whether they were minding themselves or what, we just didn’t seem to be keeping our momentum going. I think we went away from playing as a team on the day in Croke Park. There were a couple of opportunities where we had men in better positions and we didn’t give the ball. When we were chasing the game, we needed those passes to go to hand to the man in the better position to keep us in the match. We blew a couple of goal chances before half time and we still only went in three points down. We talked about what we were going to do at half time and we came out and we let Limerick totally take us over for the first fifteen minutes in the second half and we were a well beaten docket after that. It hurts, it’s fairly annoying, you’d be fairly angry after it from a management perspective. We need to get our heads around it collectively and work together to make sure that it doesn't happen again.”
He believes that both players and management must take responsibility for what happened in the build-up. “Maybe it was something from a management perspective that we should have tapered it back a little bit. I have to look at it as much as the players. Our extended panel seemed to be more focused than the fellas that had possession of the jersey. If I was to do my job right that day, there would have been seven or eight changes for the All Ireland final if I was to go on that training session alone. Unfortunately, if you arrived with a team with eight changes from a semi final where you turned over Kilkenny, definitely the manager's head would be on the block! The match among ourselves wasn't where it needed to be seven days out from an All Ireland final. Whether that was a mindset thing, whether that was players minding themselves, I don't know. It's something that I have to get behind as a manager and figure out if we arrive in that situation again.”
After defeating Cork, Clare and Kilkenny in the 2020 championship, he feels that this Waterford team can lift major trophies. “I’ve said it from day one, since I arrived in Waterford, that every day I walk the sideline with these fellas I believe I have a chance. That hasn’t changed. I might be a little bit annoyed after the All Ireland with certain aspects of our play and our mindset leading into it. I’ll hold my hand up that it’s a collective job. It’s my job and the players’ job to arrive ready to play. I’m not laying any blame at anyone’s feet. When we go down, we all go down together. The reality is that things have to change for 2021. We have put ourselves back in that position and it’s a real test of both myself and the players to find another couple of lengths to get silverware. Ultimately, my reign in Waterford is about winning silverware. I don’t know anything else only to aim for that and try and achieve it. If my reign ends without silverware, it will be a failure. That’s where I’m coming from and I need my players to reflect that as well when they play.”
Listen back to the full interview with Liam Cahill from Friday's Lár Na Páirce.
https://www.spreaker.com/user/wlrfm/larnapaircefeb12part2
