Former Tipperary hurler John 'Bubbles' O'Dwyer has said that Tipperary's inter-county senior hurling side has massively improved, but there is still a lot of work for Liam Cahill's team if they want to win Liam McCarthy again.
Speaking exclusively to Betway.com in an interview, O'Dwyer discussed his former side and offered his insights on their performance, his retirement, and his former teamate Seamus Callanan
How would you sum up Tipp’s year?
"It’s a hard one to sum up. There has been a massive improvement in the team compared with last year, there’s no doubt," he said to Betway."The management that have come in have done great work in what they wanted the players to do and what they’re getting out of it. At the same time, massive improvement but massive disappointment in the way that the year finished. They had an okay league and then Limerick got on top of them in the league semi-final which you wouldn’t be overly worried about, it’s a building thing.
"The first three games of the championship they played well but then Waterford was really disappointing. They would have worked on a few things and got on the horse again against Offaly, but then against Galway it was similar to the Waterford game, very flat again. There’s obvious improvement there but disappointment. They have gained a good few players. Gearoid O'Connor, Alan Tynan and Bryan O’Mara have stepped up big time, and then you have two top-class goalkeepers as well [Rhys Shelly and Brian Hogan]. If another two or three lads step up next year, you’ll be hoping that Tipperary can go in the right direction again."
John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer
— OurGame.ie (@OurGameHQ) February 16, 2023
Do you expect any Tipperary retirement?
"It's a hard one to call, and I don’t want to be writing anyone off," he added. "I don’t think Noel [McGrath] will step away but it might be something Seamie [Callanan] and Bonner [Patrick Maher] think about. Whether they will step away, I wouldn’t be 100 per cent sure. They will have a good think about it. You might see Seamie and Bonner but I wouldn’t be surprised if they went back next year either."
"I think Noel will definitely stay but Seamie and Bonner might think about it a bit more, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they stayed."
Does Seamus Callanan get the credit he deserves? 40 championship goals and all from play, which no modern forward comes close to.
"No, they don’t. It’s absolutely crazy his goal tally. If you’re looking at the last couple of games this year, he scored maybe one goal. Now, he also led the fight against Waterford in a poor performance.
"He doesn't get enough credit, he’s been around a long time, he owes Tipperary nothing and captained them to an All-Ireland as well. Seamie’s goalscoring record is immense. It probably will be caught by someone but to score them all from play shows the danger that he was. He is pushing on a bit but I wouldn’t write him off.
"You can see there this year that he still has the pace in the legs. He has the power in the legs and he has put on a good bit of size so I wouldn't write him off by saying he’s going to retire. You’d never know what he’s thinking." he concluded.
