Earlier in the year Tipperary minor hurling boss Liam Cahill issued his players with an ultimatum: play hurling or play football. Don't combine the both. In fact, as far back as last winter, Cahill called it the "elephant in the room" regarding the progression of Tipp minor sides.
The pressure on Cahill was evident at the start of this summer, when he said he was sick of having to deal with "crying" parents who were complaining at how their spawn weren't starting for his side.
But now the valve has been released and Cahill can look back on a successful year after his young charges overcame Limerick comprehensively in Sunday's All-Ireland final. And the Ballingarry man believes his decision to make players choose one code over the other has been vindicated somewhat by the victory.
Cahill contrasted the results of this year with the "unbelievable heartbreak" of last year.
I've no issue with the dual game in Tipperary once they're not drawing from the same pot to fuel codes...It's been tried, it's been tested, it's failed and today is evidence of that.
In 2015, Tipperary lost both the hurling and football finals at minor level, something Cahill puts down to players being "burnt out" from "wanting to play everything". This year, although it was a successful campaign for the county's minor hurlers, the footballers exited in their opening championship game against Cork - a result that Cahill claims brought heavy criticism "from the local media in particular."
I was branded as being dishonest and a hypocrite and naive, and it hurt at the time.
I felt what I had to do was right. It was right for the players involved, it was right for everybody. We had to do what we had to do and thankfully it worked out.
After the final, former All-Ireland winning manager Liam Sheedy seemed to express his support for Cahill's decision. Sheedy's brother John Sheedy was a selector on the side.
It will be interesting to see if other counties now mirror Cahill's decision and opt to force players at minor (or senior) level to specialise.
