Bonner Maher: It wasn’t that bad a year for Tipperary

Patrick ‘Bonnar’ Maher has a different read on Tipperary’s 2017 season to most hurling observers.

Okay, the league final shelling wasn’t pretty, neither was their subsequent Munster Championship exit at the hands of Cork. He accepts that. League and Munster, however, weren’t what Tipperary was chasing. Successfully retaining Liam MacCarthy for the first time since 1965 was the only show in town.

Michael Ryan’s charges came up short in that regard, yes, but that does not justify the criticism which was lumped at them for most of the summer, well before they fell at the semi-final fence in early August.