Sam O'Farrell grateful to Liam Cahill for supporting Tipp starlets' balancing act

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Sam O'Farrell has thanked Tipperary manager Liam Cahill for the 'huge vote of confidence' by allowing his rising stars to juggle senior and U20 commitments.
O'Farrell, Darragh McCarthy, and Oisín O'Donoghue have lined out for both teams in recent weeks, while Conor Martin and Aaron O'Halloran are also part of the senior squad.
That jam-packed fixture run included a Munster U20 final victory sandwiched in an eight-day spell between must-win games against Clare and Waterford.
The talented group added an All-Ireland U20 title to their medal haul at the weekend, and can now look forward to a preliminary quarter-final against the Joe McDonagh Cup runners-up.
'The communication between Liam and Brendan (Cummins) has been top class,' said O'Farrell.
'It would be remiss of me not to mention Liam and his backroom team, how good they've been to us.
'Even when you think about the Munster final, releasing us to play when we had a huge match to win against Waterford.
'From their point of view, they're looking at energy levels, but that was a huge vote of confidence in us to allow us to play whatever part we did in that Munster final.
'All five of us will dust ourselves down over the coming days, and look forward to now giving the senior a rattle for the next few weeks.'
O'Farrell achieved a unique feat in the nine-point victory over Kilkenny at Nowlan Park.
The Nenagh Éire Óg clubman became the first Premier player to captain their county to both All-Ireland minor and U20/21 titles.
How much would he like to complete the set at senior level?
'That's a good bit down the line. There's a lot of lads ahead of me in that,' O'Farrell replied.
'In that senior team, the experience you got from even just playing under Ronan (Maher) as the team captain, and Jake (Morris) as vice-captain… All of them older lads, lads I would've went to matches watching when I was younger, it's just second-to-none the experience you get, and Ronan's awful good.
'After we lost to Limerick, we went back into the seniors the next night to train, and everyone to a man was there to offer a bit of advice.
'Darragh Stakelum was captain of the 20s. He had a lovely word with all of us, and just said, park it and move on, which we did. We were very grateful to them for that.' O'Farrell described his progression onto the senior team as living the dream.
'It's an absolute honour. You could talk about it all day, playing senior hurling with Tipp, playing with your heroes, going to training.
'It's pinch-me stuff, going and pucking balls with Noel McGrath, Ronan Maher, John McGrath.
'But we've been playing together since Primary Games, under-14, Tony Forristal winners, Minor All-Ireland winners, and 20 winners. It's just testament to the work that has been put into us individually in our clubs, but also from the coaches at county level.
'It would have felt wrong now if we lost today. It's an absolutely unbelievable feeling.'