MAHER LATEST KINGDOM STAR TO HANG UP HIS BOOTS
KERRY midfield veteran Anthony Maher called time on his inter-county career yesterday. The 32-year-old from Duagh said it was with a ‘heavy heart’ that he was walking away from the Kingdom, but his departure had been anticipated as he has been hampered by injuries in recent seasons. His last start was in last year’s All-Ireland semifinal defeat to Mayo and his game-time this season had been limited to four appearances from the bench. The last of those came in the final minutes of Kerry’s irrelevant Super 8s win over Kildare, but it was significant for Maher as it marked his 100th competitive game for the county. Maher is the third Kerry player to retire in the last few weeks, following Kieran Donaghy and Donnchadh Walsh out the Kingdom gates. He made his debut in the 2008 Allianz League but had to wait a further two years to make his bow at Championship level, coming off the bench against Tipperary in the 2010 Munster SFC. However, from 2011 to 2015 he became a mainstay in the Kerry team, starting in 22 consecutive Championship games with the high point coming in the 2014 All-Ireland final win over Donegal. He arguably had his best ever season the following year when he won an All-Star despite Kerry coming up short in that year’s final to Dublin. Yesterday, former Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice recalled a moment during the team’s All-Ireland celebration holiday in South Africa which he claimed underlined Maher’s commitment to the game. ‘One day as a group of us wound down our round, I noticed Anthony running around the boundary of the golf course on his own, typically pushing himself. He was getting ready for 2015 and backed up his 2014 season by again driving us to the final that year,’ recalled Fitzmaurice.