Liam Cahill has emerged as the likely successor to the Tipperary hurling manager’s role after Thursday’s departure of Colm Bonnar, who was “relieved” of the position after one year by the county’s management committee.
Cahill, who has managed Waterford for the past three years, leading them to an All-Ireland final in 2020 and this year’s National League, had not committed to a further year with the county, although he had indicated that he would be staying in an interview with TG4.
As a former underage All-Ireland winning manager with Tipperary, he is an obvious choice for his own county and would have been offered the position when it fell vacant a year ago but he opted to stay put.
He is believed to be meeting Waterford officials on Friday and whereas they may decide on a fourth year, sources in Tipperary are optimistic that Cahill will be available.
There were raised eyebrows at the language of the Tipperary statement that the decision had been taken “to relieve Colm Bonnar” of his duties. He had taken over the county after Liam Sheedy had stepped down last year and there were virtually no other applicants.
It was terrible year for Tipp, culminating in four defeats from four Munster round-robin fixtures. But Bonnar was accursed by retirements, a career-ending injury to Pádraic Maher, an outstanding leadership figure, and long-term injuries to key players such as former Hurler of the Year Séamus Callanan, as well as the unavailability due to travel of promising young players Bryan O’Mara and Ciarán Connolly.
He had recently lost his coach Tommy Dunne and selector Paul Curran and there had also reportedly been player discontent. But Bonnar had been keen to continue to see out his three-year appointment and with selector Johnny Enright, had been working on putting together a new management team for next year.
In a statement made to tipperarylive.ie, Bonnar reacted strongly to the decision.
“I am extremely disappointed with the decision of the executive committee of Tipperary GAA regarding my position as Tipperary senior hurling manager.
“The terms of reference I was given for my three-year term were stated clearly by the executive committee at the Tipperary convention in December 2021 where it was stated that Tipperary were entering a transition and a rebuilding period. The manager will need time to add new players to the panel and patience was urged for this rebuild.
“I presented a detailed presentation to the 15-person executive yesterday evening [Wednesday]. This encompassed my review of 2022 and my plans for 2023. I have since been informed by the county board that I am no longer in the position of Tipperary senior hurling manager for the coming years.
“I am an honourable and a very committed Tipperary man, with an experienced management career, who has always given my heart and soul to Tipperary hurling, both as a player and manager. I took on this task in good faith.”
