IT’S NOT EASY being a Tipperary senior hurler these days but Brendan Maher isn’t phased by the criticism.
According to the 25 year-old former All-Star, the negativity his side have faced in recent years is bringing the current panel closer together.
“It does, there is no point saying it doesn’t,” says Maher. “When you are walking around and listening to people giving out about you and reading about it in the papers and so on, when you are in with the group, in there for the same reason, trying to be the best you can be and win with Tipperary, it would harden you up I suppose.”
“The criticism we’ve had over the last few years has definitely mentally strengthened us up.”
Since back to back All-Ireland finals in 2010 and 2011, Tipperary have had two very disappointing years, and both their critics and fans have let them know all about it.
“When you’d have them few doubts in your head and people are saying so much about you, and knocking you so much and saying how bad you are something like that, you’d say, ‘jesus we are not as bad as they are saying and we do have something to offer.’
“That’s important as a group. We can’t control what is going to be said about us. All we can control is what we do on the field and how hard we work and really as a group that’s what we decided to do.
In the 2012 All-Ireland semi final Tipp reached possibly their lowest point, a 4-24 to 1-15 hammering at the hands of bitter rivals Kilkenny.
“From when we got beat in the semi final to the start of 2013 was a tough time for a lot of players and a couple of individuals maybe got more criticism than they deserved,” explained Maher.
“It’s tough to take. Maybe certain people will forget that we are all human, we all go out to do our best, there is nobody going out to try and lose a game.”
As unjust as some of the criticism can be, Maher insists he would never let it get in the way of his ambitions within the county jersey.
“I think there are probably thousands of people in Tipperary who would give their right arm to be in the position we are in. We are very lucky to be in the position we are in to be able to put on the Tipperary jersey and represent Tipperary.
In this year’s league final Tipperary surrendered a ten point lead in eventually losing to Kilkenny. A year earlier in the same fixture, Tipp were again edged out by Kilkenny – who are in fact also the only team to have knocked Tipp out of the championship since 2009.
“You would be so raw after losing a game like that. But last year maybe we dwelled on the loss a bit too much for a couple of weeks afterwards and it took us a couple of weeks to recover from it.
“This time we trained last Monday morning straight after the game and it was great just to get back out on the field. You can let out a bit of frustration, whatever you had.”
This Sunday Tipp will get a chance to bring some joy back to the county as they face last year’s Munster champions Limerick. They beat Tipp by three points in last year’s provincial semi final.
“I suppose are work rare wasn’t good enough last year. I remember myself it was a sweltering hot day and I didn’t work as hard as I should have. I was feeling sorry for myself that it was so warm.
“(This year) we are happy where we are, good competition for places, lads are back hurling well, everyone is playing for the team, which is very important, there is a good unit there.”
