Brendan Cummins pleads patience with Liam Sheedy’s Tipp return
Brendan Cummins believes Tipperary boss Liam Sheedy is targeting an All-Ireland SHC title in 2019 but feels he may need more time to deliver on that goal.
As Sheedy looks set to reveal his management team which will include Tommy Dunne as coach, his 2010 All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Cummins is excited about what lies ahead with the Portroe man at the helm.
“I know I certainly owe a lot to Liam Sheedy and his management style. I think the Tipperary players now, the length and breadth of this county are looking forward to getting in under him and helping him get us back to where we feel we should be, and that’s in the latter end of the summer and competing in Croke Park.”
However, Cummins preaches patience above anything else. “He’s coming in, he’ll put everything in place for you to perform but the responsibility always falls on the player to perform.
He’ll create the environment to do that but I would probably think it might take 12 to 18 months to achieve success. I wouldn’t put pressure by saying they have to do it next year but I think the bit of rebuilding work has to be done, players have to be bedded in, those U21s and all that, so it is going to take a bit of time.
“His ambition will be a one-year plan like he’d always have said to us, but probably I might say it’ll take two.”
Cummins was speaking at the launch of the Amanda Stapleton Benefit Fund Match which sees former and current Tipperary and Kilkenny players face off in Borrisoleigh’s Bishop Quinlan Park on November 3.
The game is in aid of local charities as well as Amanda, sister of former Tipperary defender Paddy and Cuala hurler Shane, who has been diagnosed with brain cancer.
The diagnosis stunned the family but they were soon determined to do something for London-based Amanda. “It is very tough, especially when the news broke first,” recalled Paddy.
But there’s only so much sitting around and crying you can do, and then you’ve got to try and get on with life and certainly that’s what Amanda is trying to do, to go on and live the best way she can live.
Explaining how Kilkenny got on board, Stapleton said: “With a rivalry like that comes a lot of respect. Paul Murphy would be very connected to Amanda from her boyfriend’s side and that’s how the connection came about.
“He said that anyone who could be there was going to be there and he got a great reaction.
“We certainly know some of the all-time great names of hurling in Kilkenny and Tipperary will be there on the night.”
