Ronan Maher proud to play the cornerstone for Tipperary

It wasn’t that James Barry was doing anything wrong. In fact, he was quite impressive when he was handed the centre-back berth for Tipperary’s opening two Division 1A games.

But when injury ruled him out of the Waterford game, Ronan Maher stepped in and it just felt right. Even if they suffered an agonising defeat to the Déise and needed an injury-time point to earn a draw with Galway, the solidity provided by the 20-year-old in the middle of the 45m line was a veritable success.

The game against Cork was a write-off because of the opposition’s indifference to the tie but in going down to Clare it was Maher whose composure stood out, making him a nailed-on certainty to shift left from where he was stationed last season.

“The way things panned out in the league, a few lads got injured and there were a few positional changes and thankfully I got to slot in there for a couple of matches and made it my own,” he said.

“Please God, things will stay going the way they’ve been going and hopefully I can hold that position for the rest of the year.

“I would have been playing in that position the whole way up with my club and under-age. I would have been there the last two or three years with my club’s U21s and half-back with the Sars seniors. I’m comfortable enough in that position and hopefully a bit more experience will get me a bit better.”

Maher smiles when it’s suggested older brother and fellow half-back Pádraic might be a little envious of him taking up such an anchor role.

“With his experience, he’s pretty comfortable playing in any position. He’s been in the full-back line, the half-back line and I don’t think it makes a difference to him. It’s all about the team.”

The pair wouldn’t be the greatest of conversationalists, he admits. “We keep to ourselves. He would do his own thing and I would do my thing.” And their qualities are different. “He’d be more dominant in the air whereas I’d be more hurling free, like to win the ball.”

All three of Tipperary’s defeats this year were confirmed in the closing stages. It’s become too much of a development and Maher recognises they have to stop it.

“I suppose keeping that concentration in the last few minutes of the game, that you push in the last 10 or 15 minutes. It was the puck of a ball between us and Waterford in the league as it was with Clare so it’s a small thing that’s going to get us over the line.”

Maher knows the low-key build-up in Cork will suit them. Talk of their demise, he agrees, is exaggerated. Cork are kind of underdogs and that can be dangerous for us at times. Any day Cork come to Thurles, they bring everything. They’re going to bring their fight, their hurling, everything. We’ll just have to deal with that and just concentrate on ourselves.”

Here’s a little extra sport: BallTalk TV preview the FA Cup Final between Crystal Palace and Man United: