Maher: United front is only way
‘They’re better
off saying it now if they’re
not happy’
PÁDRAIC MAHER looks at the dressing room heave that has Galway hurling in tu r moil and admits the circumstances are ‘a bit unusual’.
Back in August, Tipperary were surfing the wave of being crowned Munster champions and fancied to take out Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final. Instead, they crashed out by virtue of a last-gasp point by Shane Moloney, a player making his senior Championship debut. Eamon O’Shea’s departure as manager had been well signposted but it was hard to imagine then that his opposite number Anthony Cunningham would come into the firing line.
Maher doesn’t know the ins and outs of the Galway stand-off but, speaking yesterday at the launch of the AIB club championships, he did say one thing: it’s impossible to be successful if the dressing room isn’t on your side.
‘I think it’s very vital that you have to have the management and the players going the one direction. There’s no point in management making plans or anything like that if the players are not going to go about it in the right way. You definitely need everybody pulling in the right direction if you have any chance of being successful.
‘I suppose it is a bit unusual. He brought the team to an All-Ireland final and had good wins over Cork and ourselves. If the players aren’t happy, they’re not happy and they’re probably better off saying it at the start of the year rather than the middle or the end of the League and kicking up ructions that they’re not happy about things. They might as well get it out of the way now,’ said Maher.
He’s not claiming that things have always been rosy during his senior career, dating back to 2009, but he insists there has never been a breakdown of dressing room trust.
‘We never really have anything like that with management. Obviously we had disagreements with Eamon at times as well, certain things that we thought would be changing. The way management is now, they’re very open to these things,’ added Maher.
‘Other than that the players have never really stood up and said, “We want a change” or anything like that, not in my time anyway.’
The succession stakes in Tipperary had already been agreed with selector Michael Ryan stepping in to the breach, even if a designated coach hasn’t been agreed yet.
‘I know some lads are saying there should be something in place by now, but it could be a good sign that Mick is just trying to find the right personnel to be involved with him. It’s a very important job.’
One that O’Shea filled in his first coming alongside Liam Sheedy on the All-Ireland-winning side of 2010. In one heady week in September, Maher won senior and Under21 titles, Tipperary demolishing an Anthony Cunningham-managed Galway in the U21 final, six days after stopping Kilkenny’s bid for a senior five-in-a-row and lifting the Liam MacCarthy Cup themselves.
‘I suppose we don’t know how lucky we were at the time. You do think you’re going to rack them up and that you’re going to have two or three. Obviously enough, it doesn’t come that way and we’ve got close once or twice but haven’t been able to get over the line. It’s something very frustrating, that you’ve tasted success so early on in your career. Hopefully our time will come again,’ said Maher.
This year was particularly hard to take but he refuses to use the fiveweek break from the Munster final as an excuse. ‘I think it’s just an excuse — I don’t think we can have too many qualms about it.
‘If we won there would be nothing about it, it’s just that there has been a succession of Munster teams that have not progressed on to win All-Irelands. But if you were to ask me for 2016, I want to win a Munster final again.
‘Look, we didn’t deserve to win. Take Séamus Callanan out of the performance and where would we have been on the day?’
Maher’s club Thurles Sarsfields face Nenagh Éire Óg in the Tipperary county final on Sunday week after disposing of Kilruane MacDonaghs at the weekend, and Lar Corbett’s form is such that Maher sees him as an option for Tipperary again next season.
‘He has plenty of life left in his legs if he wants to be. I saw it the last day in the club game, he was up and down the field and not a bother on him. Plenty of enthusiasm there as well.
‘I don’t know what the future holds with Tipperary but it’s great to see it from a club point of view.’