Players patience is rewarded - Padraic Maher

By Shane Brophy

County Senior Hurling Finals are bittersweet for Padraic Maher.

As a player, the Tipperary great won 7 senior medals in an eleven year spell between 2007 and 2017 but his last county final was the 2021 replay defeat to Loughmore/Castleiney which proved to be his last ever game, forced to retire from playing not long after.

As a manager, he has already tasted final defeat with the 2023 replay loss to Kiladangan in what was his first year in charge. It has been far from smooth and last years group stage exit was certainly a shock for a club of Thurles Sarsfields standing but one that really focused the minds.

“The thing didn’t go for us last year and we were going to give everyone a chance between challenge games and county league, no matter what age they were,” revealed the Thurles Sarsfields manager of his outlook ahead of this year.

“Some of the younger lads saw it as a great opportunity if they got early season form and thankfully, they have continued that consistency right from the start of the championship and have totally earned their spots.

“They have brought great energy to it and are carrying out their jobs which is keeping them in the positions they are in, backboned by the lads that have a lot of experience that is needed in a team.

“But there are some players there that have done a lot of hurling the last few years at premier intermediate and while they wanted to kick on themselves. It goes to show the rest of the lads playing premier intermediate if you keep putting it in and get an opportunity at senior level, be ready to take it.

“Aidan Stakelum played junior ‘A’ hurling last year at some stage and now he is playing consistently this year at senior level so he is a good example for everyone that if you keep putting the head down, don’t let the disappointments get at you too much, and when you get your chance, you take it.

“A lot of the premier intermediate games are tight and you earn your crust and playing the best every other club has to offer so it is a great learning experience.”

The seminal moment for the group was their second round win over Holycross/Ballycahill, only weeks after their neighbours put them to the sword in the Mid semi-final.

“It was fine in the first round of the Mid Championship against Upperchurch/Drombane but we got a fair jolt against Holycross/Ballycahill in the semi-final,” Maher recalls.

“The players could easily have turned around and said this isn’t working for us but we went back to training the following week and did the same things we had been working on for the previous twelve months. It was about showing the players that when we do what we want them to do it is working, but when we veer away from that in the second half against Holycross (Mid semi-final) it can get away from you.

“We came out of a hard group,” Maher added of wins over Upperchurch/Drombane and Kilruane MacDonaghs as well but “the Holycross game did give us a lot of momentum and gave the players a lot of belief too that if do stick to what we want to do, it would work.”

He added of the semi-final: “A lot of our players, possibly up to seven lads were playing their first senior championship game in Semple Stadium so you didn’t know how it would affect lads.

“It gave us a great boost going into the Nenagh game because we knew what Nenagh were going to be capable of doing to us if we allowed them with the way Sam O’Farrell performed in the quarter final and the way Josh Keller has been performing all year as a powerhouse. To get over them was big for the group.”

That game also saw a welcome return to action for Ronan Maher from a broken ankle and the Sarsfields manager has paid tribute to his younger brother.

“It was great to get him back on the pitch in the last day for the length of time we did,” he added.

“He got the bones of ten minutes and made a couple of contributions which was very good. It was great for him with all the hard work he has been doing in the background with rehab has worked.

“He is only getting back slowly but surely and has probably been a bit slower than everyone expected. It was a serious injury and has to think long term about his own health as we all want him playing at the best of his ability for Tipperary next year too.”

In terms of the challenge Moycarkey/Borris will provide in the final, Padraic Maher isn’t surprised at all they have gotten to this stage.

“They are there on merit, no doubt about it,” he said.

“They are unbeaten in the whole championship right from the opening day against Loughmore/Castleiney in Templetuohy which was a statement victory, and in a group where they were the only one not safe with three divisional winners. The pressure has been on them from day one and they have delivered.

“They are showing great resilience, great fight, great belief in what they are doing and we are going to have to bring a fairly one hundred percent performance to get over the line on Sunday.”