Maher: Still job on to dislodge camogie's big three

Tipp winning this season's National League is the first time since 2012 that the winner of the league or Championship hasn't been Kilkenny, Cork or Galway.

Tipperary's Caoimhe Maher, Galway's Roisin Black, Cork's Molly Lynch and Waterford's Keeley Corbett Barry at the launch of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Camogie Championships Pic ©INPHO/Tom Maher

Caoimhe Maher reckons it's still too early to say that camogie's big three has been broken up.

The Tipperary vice-captain played a key role in helping the Premier win this season's National League - the first time since 2012 that the winner of the league or Championship hasn't been Kilkenny, Cork or Galway.

Tipp also won last year's Munster championship while they and Waterford contested an All-Ireland semi-final in 2023, with Waterford advancing to the final.

Cork still enter the opening round of this season's All-Ireland championship at the weekend as holders, and Maher says there's a lot more to be done to move beyond the big three talk.

"I don't think we can properly say it's gone until one of us, from the rest of us, goes and wins it, the All-Ireland," said Maher. "But it's a hugely exciting time to be playing camogie because the competition is so fierce and obviously what that's doing is raising the standards of the game and making it a lot more exciting.

"From a profile of camogie perspective, it's huge that those games now are becoming closer and closer."

Maher said last year's provincial win, Tipp's first in 13 years, was a landmark moment for the group who have pushed on this season with the league triumph, beating Galway in last month's final.

They failed to successfully defend the Munster title having lost at the last four stage to Waterford, whom they will face all over again in Round 1 of the Championship this Saturday. After that, Tipp will take on Ulster sides Derry and Antrim before concluding their group campaign with ties against Limerick and Kilkenny.

Maher said that after landing a first league title in 20 years, their ambition is to complete a dream double by winning the All-Ireland - just as they did in 2004.

"Obviously that would be the ultimate goal, to not only get there (to the final) but to win it," said Maher. "We'd be obviously hoping to take each game as it comes - but also to win each game. That's where we want to be, we've done a lot of work on trying to break into that top three over the last couple of years.

"We've been there or thereabouts but there's only so much of that that you can do before it starts to get tiring. We're all obviously playing the game because we're competitive girls, so at the end of the day we want to be winning. That's where we want to be and that's what we want for Tipperary camogie."

A top-three finish in their six-team group will guarantee an All-Ireland quarter-final place at least for Tipp. If they can get that far, they can start to dream of emulating the last Tipp side that won the All-Ireland, in 2004.

"I remember meeting some of the players after their All-Ireland wins, I remember meeting the likes of Jovita Delaney and Eimear McDonnell who I would have played with in the club anyway," said Maher.

"I remember taking pictures of them on the street when they had the O'Duffy Cup. That's a long time ago so I'd be hoping that I'd be able to do the same thing some day.

"That's what the goal is, we are working towards that. It's not going to be easy by any means. We'll face a huge test in every single game. But it's a very exciting time to be playing for Tipp. We have done a lot of hard work as a team and the minors' success indicates that the players will be coming through after us. So we'd be hoping all these things will come together."