Champagne on ice as Maher back to business

TIPPERARY has been engulfed in a giddy and happy atmosphere all week but by Tuesday night it was time for Padraic Maher and seven of his senior colleagues to take a step back from the celebrations.

The business of preparing for an All-Ireland U21 decider needed to be taken care of as the focus quickly shifted to securing another national hurling crown for the county.

“Things have been a bit hectic but it’s great times at the moment,” says Maher. “We’re so lucky as the U21’s to be involved in both camps. You’d take one of them with both hands at any other time, so we’re just really lucky to be involved in two in the space of a week. You put your celebrations on hold for one week and concentrate on trying to win. We went training on Tuesday night with Tommy Dunne putting us through our paces. We were brought back down to earth fairly quickly and there was a bit of fine tuning done. It was nice to get away from everything. The whole place is going mad, all around us is a big circus. But you try to stay away from that for the U21s and start concentrating.”