Anthony Daly: Strong as a bear, brave as a lion... Pádraic Maher a true big-game player

He was a hugely imposing figure, but Pádraic Maher didn’t just trade on that physique and physicality because he was as brave as a lion

Tipperary’s Pádraic Maher is applauded by the Tipperary minor team as the seniors take to the pitch prior to the 2018 Munster SHC clash with Clare in Thurles. Maher is a true Tipp great. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

After one of the 2018 All-Ireland semi-finals in Croke Park, I retreated to Mulligans in Poolbeg Street with a few friends. After a while a gang of Tipperary lads arrived in, one of whom was Paudie Maher.

I had got to know Paudie from my couple of stints as manager of the Munster inter-provincial team, but that day in Dublin was the first time we got a chance to have a couple of drinks together.

After a while, Paudie said he’d been meaning to ask me a question for a while. “Where did this term ‘The Bear’ come out of?” It was an affectionate phrase I often used to describe Paudie in co-commentary on radio. “It isn’t like back in my day when you came back after Christmas and you’d two stone to lose,” I replied. “Let’s put it this way, Paudie — you knew what it took to come good at the right time.”

Players don’t hibernate over the winter anymore like we used to, but the real meaning of my term was that when a bear of a man like him growled on the pitch, everybody else took notice, especially the opposition.

It’s funny how perception is often completely different from the reality once those layers are peeled back. Paudie was nothing like his on-pitch persona — he was a softly spoken, decent fella, great craic.

He went about his business on the field with the minimum of fuss but what supporters really loved about Paudie was that he was a big-game player. Like the bear coming out of hibernation, he might not be too interested in the league during the spring, but he always hit his stride once the Championship rolled around.

The first time any of us outside of Tipperary ever heard of Paudie was in 2006 when he held Joe Canning in that year’s All-Ireland minor final. All the talk beforehand was about Joe and his quest for a third successive All-Ireland medal but Paudie dominated a lot of that discussion afterwards because he was still under 17.

When he thundered onto the scene with the Tipp seniors at 20 in 2009, I got to see him up close and personal on plenty of occasions over the following few years as Dublin manager. I often remember going down to our goalkeeper Gary Maguire before league games with one basic piece of advice: “Gar, keep it away from Maher’s big paw, will ya.”

Paudie wasn’t the quickest player but he was so adaptable, while his brilliant skill and ability to read the game rarely left him isolated or in a difficult spot on the field. And if he found himself in that position against a tricky opponent, Paudie normally found the solution pretty quickly.

He was a hugely imposing figure, but Paudie didn’t just trade on that physique and physicality because he was as brave as a lion. That epic photograph of him diving to block Waterford’s Shane Bennett with his hands after losing his hurley neatly encapsulated that bravery and willingness to do whatever was required for Tipp to win.

He was also one of those players who electrified the crowd with his presence on the ball. Not too many defenders can raise the roof off the stands with a high fetch or a long clearance, but Maher certainly had that capacity. When he got a long-range score — and he got a lot of them — it nearly felt like two points chalked up on the board for Tipp.

I used to love watching him play, just like you’d look forward to seeing all the big hurlers doing their stuff on the biggest days. That’s when the real animal came out. That shoulder Paudie nailed Joe with in the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final, which put Canning out of the game, was delivered with such ferocity that it felt like Croke Park shook from the force. When Gearóid McInerney nailed Paudie with a similar hit in the 2017 All-Ireland semi-final, I think Gearóid almost cemented his All-Star in that moment.

Paudie might have crossed the line the odd time, as all defenders do, but he always struck me as a lad who could take it as well as he’d dish it out. He just got on with it. As the game changed, so did Paudie. When he knew that those trademark long clearances, which ignited the crowd, had to be replaced with a shorter, crispier passing game, Paudie just evolved.

Having played through the eras of the great Kilkenny dominance and the current Limerick crusade, three All-Irelands and six All-Stars is a fitting testimony to a great career. When Liam Sheedy, Anthony Nash, and I selected the greatest All-Star team ever last year around the time of the awards, Paudie ended up at number six. If you were to select Tipp’s greatest 15, Paudie would surely be on it, probably battling it out with my great friend Len Gaynor for the No 7 jersey.

He walks away as a Tipp hurling great. When you drive into Thurles from the Horse and Jockey side and pass that famous mural on the gable end of Barrett’s pub, the faces of former Tipp hurlers Pat Stakelum, John Doyle, Jimmy Doyle, and ‘Rattler’ Byrne stare down at you, which adds to the mythical status of those players.

It’s hard to see anyone else joining that collection on that mural but I wouldn’t rule it out. Maybe Paudie Maher will be there in time. He would be fully deserving of such a status.