'Cork are still raging hot favourites' - Liam Cahill on Tipp's All Ireland chances

LIAM CAHILL HAS branded Cork as “raging hot favourites” after Limerick’s exit from the All-Ireland Hurling Championship.

His Tipperary side will face Kilkenny in the final four, while the Rebels meet Dublin. With current champions Clare and history-makers Limerick out, Cahill insisted the championship is anything but wide-open.

“Cork are still raging hot favourites,” he said. “I’d say there’s only one man smiling tonight, and that’s Pat Ryan. We have to prepare and fix a few things for two weeks’ time. And try and embrace the challenge, which is a huge challenge.”

The biggest hurdle in their preparation will be Tipp’s lack of familiarity with Croke Park.

The Premier haven’t been back to GAA HQ since their 2019 All-Ireland victory over Kilkenny, and Cahill feels the “bigger spaces” of Croker will require his team to be better defensively.

“It’ll be a big challenge to go to Croke Park with a group of players when a high percentage of them won’t have played there. That will more than likely hand us the tag of being real underdogs, and rightly so.

“There’ll be no margin for error in that place. It’s unforgiving up there. Kilkenny know that like the back of their hand, they’re playing day in, day out in it. We won’t use that as an excuse. Obviously, we’re not. But we have to highlight that it is a concern.

“It’s a new experience for a high percentage of our players, but it’s one that we’ll relish and it’s one that we have to go through as we try to progress. If you’re to call it straight, we’re probably a little bit more advanced than we thought we would be in relation to our progression. So, let’s go in two weeks’ time and have a right cut off it and see where it takes us.”

His side got off a whopping 51 shots in the eight-point victory over Galway. Cahill was happy with that statistic, but less pleased with their finishing. “It’s always good, but I would say at least 10 to 15 of them were bad decisions.

“That’s what I’m talking about when I talk about trying to fix little areas before we go up the road to take on the might of Kilkenny. We’ll look at that and we’ll see, but that’s a very interesting stat.

“Our shots off are important. Every team is chasing it now because you have to be in the 30-point bracket or the 2-25, 3-25 to have any chance of winning an All-Ireland.

“Today was about getting the job done. It wasn’t pretty at times. We showed snippets of what we’ve been capable of doing all year, but plenty to work on. And a real opportunity now for us to go after it and see if we can sneak into a final.”

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