WHATEVER IT TAKES!

Maher plays through pain barrier in drive for All-Ireland glory

TIPPERARY defender Pádraic Maher re v e al ed t hat he played through the pain barrier for almost the entire Munster hurling final after damaging shoulder ligaments in the opening five minutes.

Maher went on to become one of the central figures in the game against Waterford in the free role of sweeper but he admitted he was operating on pure adrenaline after a hefty challenge from Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh early on left him with a damaged AC joint.

‘First five minutes and the Brick caught me. Nothing massive, just the way he caught me drove the shoulder up. I got through it thankfully,’ said Maher.

‘For me, it was a Munster final in Thurles, we were mad to be back there. We weren’t going to go down without a fight. I wasn’t going to go off too easily.

The injury was serious enough that it threatened to rule him out of Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Galway, a full five weeks later, but he said he would never have done anything to undo Tipperary’s chances of a first provincial title in three years.

‘Once I wasn’t putting the team in too much danger. If I felt I wasn’t able to go on, I would have come off. It was a full house in Thurles, so you’re going to do everything to stay on the field.

‘The week after the Munster final it was sore. I didn’t know which way it was going to go.

‘I did the same one last year. The last two weeks I’ve been able to do a bit of training.’

The All-Star centre-back admitted to a huge sense of relief after beating Waterford in the Munster final after crashing out at the first hurdle the previous two years under Eamon O’Shea’s tutelage. He remembers a time when they thought titles would continue to come easy.

‘It was unreal. You could see that in the way we celebrated it on the field afterwards with the supporters.

‘Maybe around 2011 or ’12 we took a few of them for granted. We won’t do that anymore. It felt great to be back in the winners’ enclosure again and it gives us great momentum going into a semi-final.

‘With Eamon not getting any silverware the past two years it was great for him too to get it.’

Contrary to the public perception, he pointed out that the make-up of the starting 15 has ‘changed massively’ in recent years. ‘People think it hasn’t because it’s backboned by the same players,’ said Maher.

‘Our average age is only 25 or so. We’re one of the youngest teams out there. Eamon has brought in new lads gradually.’

No-one understands the sense of heightened expectations better than the classy Thurles Sarsfields centre-back. ‘Every year is a makeor-break year as far as we’re concerned. All we want is success,’ said Maher.

‘The Tipperary people, be it players and supporters, you want to win it every year. That’s the way it should be.

‘It makes it all the more easier when you’re winning. Winning the likes of a Munster title takes the heat off you.’

When Tipperary met Galway in last year’s qualifier, he was the one trying to solve the troublesome fullback role and he had his struggles there before his switch out to centre-back transformed his county’s fortunes.

‘It’s the way the game is now at the moment, you have to be able to go in anywhere.

‘James Barry i s there at the moment. He can play equally well, if not better, in the half-back line — that’s where he has done all his hurling. He has adapted very well to that position too.’

As for Sunday’s opponents, Maher sees huge improvement in Galway even since last summer. ‘ They’ve come on a massive amount. We’ve been caught by them once or twice. When they get a run on you they can really punish you.

‘We’ve seen what they did to Cork. We saw it first-hand last year. Even going back to 2010, we got out by the skin of our teeth. It’s going to be a massive battle.’