Huge responsibility in playing for Tipp – Ronan Maher
By Shane Brophy
Time flies in life and in inter-county hurling. It’s hard to believe that Tipperary captain Ronan Maher is facing into his eleventh championship campaign.
It feels more recent that the Thurles Sarsfields clubman made his senior bow in in 2014 as a fresh-faced eighteen year old, a difficult initiation in an All-Ireland Qualifier defeat of Galway where he was subbed off at half time. He wasn’t the first and won’t be the last player to find the going tough in an inter-county debut and since then has been a mainstay of the Tipperary defence for the last ten years. In that time, he has played 36 times in championship for Tipperary with 2 All-Ireland medals and 2 All-Stars to his name.
With his brother Padraic having moved on from the selectors role, following on from his enforced retirement, Ronan Maher is now one of the most experienced players on the Tipperary panel and his appointment as captain came as no surprise, signalling a new area for his group of players.
“I only said recently to the lads - it’s a huge responsibility playing with the Tipperary jersey on your back and with that comes huge expectations from Tipperary supporters,” said the new Tipperary captain.
“We know that they (supporters) will row in behind us once we give it everything and they can see us fighting for the cause.
We’re well aware of that as a group and we’re eager to create our own bit of history and there’s a lot of work been going on over the course of the National League. There’s been a lot of tough training and once we come to the first round of Munster, we’ll see the hard work pay off.
The last time Tipperary were seen in public was a very disappointing performance in the league semi-final loss to Clare which led to re-igniting the doubts over the quality of this team. However, the Tipperary captain is pleased with their preparation for the championship.
“I suppose there are a lot of new faces, even from last year and it does take time for them to blend in but we’re really close group and we’re working hard which builds a lot of character going forward.
“We’ve been through a lot of defeats and hard times as well and we know that in the back of our minds, there is a bit of hurt there, so we’re all on the same wavelength. “We’re working for each other and we’re a close team and a lot of those little things help to bring everyone together.”
“I know you can see from the outside that there’s been lots of new faces around, lots of new positional changes so I think we’re in a good place at the minute. We’ve had lots of learnings from the league campaign and I’m sure we’ll have a lot more in terms of preparation for the Munster Championship.
He added: “There are 38 players involved who want to play for Tipperary at the end of the day and that brings huge competition in training, and you just have to be on top of your game every night.”