Tipp’s Ronan Maher is anxious to add to his medal collection

Already established as Tipp’s defensive linchpin, Ronan Maher is anxious to add to his medal collection

RONAN MAHER turned 21 last October as an All-Ireland champion. There aren’t many who have celebrated that particular landmark with a Celtic Cross already tucked away – fewer still would have played such a significant part in claiming that medal.

From the moment that Michael Ryan entrusted him with the role as the central pillar of Tipperary’s defence, Maher has belied his tender years. There was the reassuring presence of his bigger brother alongside him in the half-back line but the younger Maher has never looked like he needed Pádraic’s guidance.

Never more so than in Croke Park last September when his incredibly mature display at just 20 years of age made it hard to believe he was stepping into the biggest game that he had ever played.

Any time that Eoin Murphy, the best goalkeeper in the game, fired a restart into Maher’s airspace, the young Thurles native seemed to grab it. He won eight Kilkenny puck-outs over the course of the afternoon. As he sat in the Anner Hotel, a stone’s throw from his family home, during the week ahead of today’s mouth-watering Allianz League semi-final against Wexford, he was asked about his nerveless display in his maiden All-Ireland final.

‘Ah, you’d have a few butterflies in your stomach alright, but you would try not to think about it too much in the days before,’ he said ‘Me, personally, the day before or morning of the game, I don’t think about it too much. I kind of play on instinct more than anything.

‘I really enjoyed playing it last year,’ Maher remembered of his first final. ‘It is where every child wants to be, where they dream of and it is an unbelievable day out for the county. It’s hard to block it out but everybody deals with it differently.’

It is unusual to hear current All-Ireland champions talk of winning the League but the sound from Tipperary all spring has been clear. They want this title, if only to underline their current dominance.

‘We set out our stall to try and push on and win the League,’ Maher said. ‘Only two of our panel members have League medals, Darren Glesson and Séamie Callanan. They have proven very hard to win over the years so that was our immediate focus.’

So, a resurgent Wexford, who have been the story of this spring under Davy Fitzgerald, are standing in the way of Tipp’s ambition. Within the Premier County, they are also sick and tired of hearing how Tipp tend to disappear for a few years after winning an All-Ireland title. Manager Ryan wants to rip up that particular script.

‘After 2010, the team didn’t really push on and they were disappointed with that. But they know now, and we know as a team, that we have to be more ruthless. Michael Ryan brought us down to earth straight away after the All-Ireland and set out the stall for this year.’

Maher has a close relationship with his manager. It was Ryan, as Eamon O’Shea’s selector, who first told Maher, as a 18-year-old, he was being drafted into the county squad. And it was Ryan who trusted him to be the keystone of the defence at centre-back.

‘He keeps us very honest as a team, and very honest as players,’ Maher said of his manager. ‘He gives everybody a chance. You saw that in the League, he freshens it up every game. He likes to keep everyone on their toes. There’s so much competition now that nobody is certain to start and nobody is certain to be part of the panel. That is how he brought us back down to earth, by keeping us honest.’

Even if Maher has grown up quickly in a Tipp shirt, he has had setbacks, too. He was substituted at half-time on his Championship debut –the 2014 qualifier win over Galway – while he won his first Munster medal in 2015 at corner-back.

It was only when Ryan succeeded O’Shea that Maher came into his own. By the time Ryan took charge of his first Championship game against Cork last May, Maher had been the established centre-back, dislodging his brother Pádraic, who had to move to the wing.

‘I suppose I didn’t think about it that much,’ the Mary Immaculate College student says of being entrusted with such an important position at a young age. ‘It kind of worked for me in that way. In today’s game lads are shuffled so much around the place that you have to be comfortable starting in any position in the backline. The way the game has gone there are sweeper systems and everything, you are nearly covering every position.

‘Thankfully, I’m comfortable playing in any position there. It was a big task to go in centre-back, but Michael Ryan gave me a lot of experience there in last year’s League. He made me very comfortable in those positions and gave me huge belief. I settled down really well but you could be tossed anywhere over the coming weeks. Trying to get on the team is the toughest thing at the minute.’ In the final round of Division 1A, Maher even found himself in midfield against Cork and displayed his deadball skills by slicing a sideline cut over the bar. It shows that while he is recognised as a centre-back, he can play in any position from midfield to corner-back.

He was integral to Mary I’s successful Fitzgibbon campaign. It maintained the momentum from his sterling summer last year. And he doesn’t plan to slow down just yet.

He recalls sitting in the Hogan Stand with his parents as Pádraic and his teammates stopped Kilkenny’s drive for five in 2010. That evening, it felt like the good times were going to roll for Tipperary and a raft of All-Ireland titles awaited.

It took six years for those players to claim their second medal, reinforcing the belief that Tipp teams disappear after winning Liam McCarthy.

‘It was a relief for a lot of players that we did it last year but I suppose we would just like to go on now and back it up. But we know how difficult it will be, even getting out of Munster never mind going for the All-Ireland.

‘That is why we are just concentrating on the League at the minute. Trying to do as well as we can in it, because the more matches that we play in the league, the fresher and sharper we will be going into the Championship.’

And it will be one more medal in a collection that is already bulging for this particular 21-year-old.