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The Irish Sun
8 hours ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Tipperary legend makes confident prediction for county's future as quarter-final vs Galway looms large
THE appearance of green shoots in Tipperary helped to convince Patrick 'Bonner' Maher it was time to bring an end to his days in blue and gold. As a three-time All-Ireland SHC winner, the Lorrha-Dorrha half-forward played a prominent role in Tipp's greatest days of the recent past. Advertisement 2 Maher is an ambassador for the Electric Ireland GAA All-Ireland Minor Championship Credit: Inpho 2 Oisin O'Donoghue, 15 and Darragh McCarthy, 13, amongst teammates after beating Kilkenny in May's All-Ireland U20 final And Maher, who Three weeks since The All-Ireland Under-21 triumph of 2010 was an important launchpad for what Maher went on to achieve at the highest level. Promising youngsters such as Darragh McCarthy, Oisín O'Donoghue and Sam O'Farrell are already making a similar transition now. Advertisement Read More On GAA Maher said: 'It's great to see and there's huge potential in that Under-20 squad to come up and get into that senior panel. 'From our perspective back in 2010, it was huge for us to get into the senior panel and get involved in senior games, so that will bring them on immensely as well. 'There's a good few of them boys that I think will have a bright future and long careers ahead of them wearing a Tipperary jersey.' For Maher, there was no fairytale ending as his swansong season was utterly wretched. Advertisement Most read in GAA Hurling Liam Cahill's men were dumped out of the Championship with a game to spare in the Munster round robin. Just five years after the county's 28th Liam MacCarthy Cup triumph, it painted a bleak picture for the state of Tipp hurling. Nevertheless, Maher viewed the situation from a different perspective. 'Just in time for Father's Day' - Dublin GAA legends welcome the birth of precious baby daughter He explained: 'Coming to the end of 2024, I know the campaign didn't go well but I could see the green shoots that were in there around the group and I knew Tipperary would do well moving forward. 'Another thing I kind of said to myself was maybe the time for me to step away is now and give some younger player, one of the Under-20s, an opportunity to come into the panel and to take a place and get an opportunity to drive it on from there.' Advertisement COMING GOOD Having come under intense scrutiny following the failure of last season, Cahill has overseen an impressive response in 2025. A victory over Galway in Maher continued: 'It's just one of those things when you train so hard to peak at a certain time and it just doesn't happen for whatever reason. 'But the group got back together. They went hard at it early this year and the fruits of that are showing now. Advertisement 'An awful lot of these younger players, the likes of Jake Morris and these boys, are stepping up, which is huge and it's needed. 'Ronan Maher is always a leader, Mikey Breen, there's an awful lot of these boys putting their hands up to show that they have the leadership quality there that they always potentially had. "But they're really shoving it on this year, which is great to see.' MAGICIAN MCGRATH While the injection of youth is serving Tipperary well, Maher also hailed stalwart Noel McGrath, 34, who is still central to the cause in his 17th season. Advertisement The two-time All-Star said: 'Noel is a generational player. He's always had it since we were playing together at minor and I suppose Under-16 level. "He's always had something special about him. Fair play to him, he's some operator. 'It was a joy to play beside him for so long. You probably don't see half the work that he does away from the field to get himself into the condition. "He looks after himself fierce well to still be able to operate at the level he is. It's great to see that he's still doing the job and it looks like there's plenty left in the tank with him too.' Advertisement PATRICK 'BONNER' MAHER is an ambassador for the Electric Ireland GAA All-Ireland Minor Championship.
Irish Examiner
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Andrew Ormond finding his feet in the Tipperary senior ranks
Such are the competing narratives in the Tipperary attack, the achievement of Andrew Ormond is finding space to tell and have his story heard, never mind finding space in the company of Cian Galvin and Tadhg de Búrca to torment and thrive. There is Darragh McCarthy's debut summer of red mist and razor accuracy. There is John McGrath's rejuvenated summer of relentless green. There's older brother Noel's summer of record appearances and ageless vision. And we could hardly omit Jake Morris' coming-of-age summer. And so you'd think, from that, that the Tipp forward unit was already busy enough and sufficiently stuffed with championship plotlines and performers. Think again. Andrew Ormond's story, up until 6pm on May 10, was of a decorated underage talent that failed to achieve the senior breakthrough. His story was that of a Tipp minor, a Harty Cup and Croke Cup winner with Our Lady's Templemore, all in 2017, and a Munster and All-Ireland U20 winner in 2019. From 1-2 in the 2019 U20 final victory over Cork and 1-3 in the Munster U20 final defeat to the same opposition a year later, Liam Sheedy saw enough to bring Ormond into the senior panel in 2021. It was, however, four seasons later in February 2024 before his senior competitive debut arrived. His 2024 championship involvement, meanwhile, amounted to 20 minutes at the end of a Limerick lashing and a first start for their already-eliminated final-round clash against Clare. Forgive the chronological nature of the piece thus far but it is necessary to paint the clearest picture possible of his silverware-laden teenage years, his in-the-wilderness early 20s, and his stunning senior announcement of recent weeks. He started Tipp's first two League games of 2025 and didn't start again for another 97 days until the aforementioned May 10. A fortnight earlier he was the first sub introduced against Cork in a game long gone from them. In 31 minutes on the field, the JK Brackens clubman had four possessions. A goal shot saved, a point, a handpass intercepted, and a wide. Nothing spectacular there and yet still enough felt Cahill to promote him for the must-win spin to Ennis. From centre-forward, he had six first-half possessions. Two goals, a secondary assist and defence-opening pass for John McGrath's opening goal, and an assist to Morris for a goal shot that ended as a converted 65. Arguably more important was his contribution in the first 11 minutes to a second half where Tipp, against the elements, managed only three points. Ormond assisted the first, nailed the second himself, and was fouled for the third. Fast forward to the 70th minute and Tipp's lead wobbling at the minimum, Ormond was found drawing another foul, but this time way back in his own half. Ken Hogan was invited onto the Irish Examiner Dalo's hurling show podcast the Monday after to explain the Tipp result and explain the origins of Ormond's out-of-nowhere influence. 'He's highly rated in Tipp. Has all the underage medals. Low to the ground, great centre of gravity. Probably not the greatest finisher, they would say in Tipp. But by God he got his chances on Saturday and buried two goals. That's a huge fillip; you brought in a new guy in Andrew Ormond and you brought in the old guy in John McGrath, and both contributed hugely,' said the former Premier goalkeeper. That 'not-the-greatest-finisher' perception was further punctured a week later against Waterford. The centre-forward's numbers were incredible. Between the 15th and 20th minute, he laid off the final pass for a pair of John McGrath points, clipped his second point, and was fouled for another. Across six minutes early in the second period, he was fouled on three occasions, two of which were converted, and added to his own tally with another white flag. His numbers had Anthony Daly asking Liam Sheedy in the makeshift RTÉ studio, 'where have you been hiding this fella'? Across the two starts and 28 possessions, he registered 2-4 and was directly involved in another 1-10. 'He first came in in 2021, was in around the group, but never really featured. To see where he is now; the Clare match gave him massive confidence,' said Sheedy on a recent edition of the Examiner hurling podcast. Ormond and his underage buddy Jake Morris rotate and drift in and out of the No.11 slot. A double centre-forward if you will, even if at times neither are occupying that slot. Waterford were far too slow to either press up or sit a midfielder deep during their Round 4 defeat in Thurles. If Gavin Lee is retained at centre-back for Galway and is tasked with offering protection to an injury-hit full-back line not overloaded with pace, then a David Burke or a Ronan Glennon or whichever midfielder is not obsessed with pushing forward must be obsessed with limiting the influence of a confidence-high bolter whose hit 2-7 across his three starts this summer. 'We took our learnings from last year, said at the start of the year, this is the year now, there's no better time than the present, we're not looking back, it's all about looking forward now,' Ormond remarked following his man of the match display against the Déise. He was talking about Tipp's 2025 story. He could easily have been talking about his own.
Irish Examiner
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Bonner Maher sees no summer sag in Liam Cahill's methods
It's been a nagging criticism of Liam Cahill's teams over the years, that they burn a little too brightly in winter and spring, only to fade out in the summer. Hurling pundit Brian Carroll went in hard on the issue last January after reports of Cahill's Tipperary panel engaging in spartan winter training. "This is year six of Liam Cahill doing the same thing over and over again on repeat," claimed Carroll. "It's like, dog them in the winter, take it really seriously during the league, and then they run out of steam come June." Tipp did contest this year's league final, standing up Carroll's argument somewhat, but, crucially, their form hasn't dipped in the Championship. They're even breaking new ground of sorts, stringing together three wins in a row in the Championship for the first time since winning the All-Ireland in 2019. And if they beat Galway on Saturday evening, they'll be through to a first semi-final in six years. No signs then of any summer slippage. "The way the Championship is in Munster, you're trying to peak early because Munster is so competitive," said three-time All-Ireland winner Patrick Bonner Maher who played under Cahill last year before retiring. "I wouldn't believe that (criticism) at all. I would have always thought we were in fairly good shape and I wouldn't have seen it petering out, so I can't really comment on that myself. I certainly wouldn't have seen it." Cahill addressed the criticism himself when talking to reporters after Tipp's league win over Kilkenny last March. "People say Tipperary under Liam Cahill will win matches in the spring but can they do it in the summer?" noted Cahill. In a separate interview, he said people think that Cahill 'kills them in training and has them flogged to death before the Championship' comes around. The former Tipp underage guru said the reality last year, when they failed to get out of the Munster group, was that they actually 'hadn't enough work done'. Maher noted that Tipp 'went hard at it early this year and the fruits of that are being shown now' with last weekend's preliminary quarter-final demolition of Laois setting up the Galway date. So were Tipp undercooked last year, as Cahill suggested? "I'm not 100 percent sure," shrugged Maher. "Looking back on it now, it's easy to pick out things that could possibly have gone wrong or left us short. We would have felt we were fairly fit." Tipp looked fresh and fully tuned in when putting 3-32 on the board against Laois last Saturday. Their challenge now is to maintain that high energy rate and to avoid a repeat of their 2023 quarter-final defeat to Galway. They were coming off a big preliminary quarter-final win back then too. "I remember that game down in Limerick, we were fully primed," said Maher. "One or two things just went against us, goals went against us, and it just deflated us on the day." Bonner, 35, will look on this time as an interested spectator. After 16 years as a Tipp senior, he's content with the decision he made to step away. "The body is very good thankfully," he said. "I'm playing a good bit of golf, training away, running away." He's busy at work too, with an EV charging company having finished up with the Irish Army. "I actually found out I was a coeliac," he explained of his departure from the army. "You can't serve in the army being a coeliac so I was medically discharged. I was lucky that I had my degree and masters to fall back on. It kind of pivoted my direction. That's where I'm at." * Former Tipperary hurler Patrick Bonner Maher was speaking at the launch of the 2025 Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor championships.
Irish Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Tipperary star says he retired knowing good times were coming again
The recent win over Waterford put a stop to a couple of troubling runs that Tipperary had been on. Firstly, it was their first home Championship win since 2019 while, when added to the win over Clare in Ennis, it meant that they had also bridged a six-year gap to when they last recorded successive Championship victories. 'It's probably a reflection of how competitive Munster is,' says Patrick 'Bonner' Maher, who retired after last year's desperately disappointing Championship campaign. 'That's just being honest. 'You look at the fact that the current All-Ireland champions are out of the Championship already. Munster is an absolute pit and it's touch and go on the teams to get out of there. 'Obviously Limerick have been so dominant in the last while but I think the rest of the group are beginning to catch up, which is good to see. But as a stat, no back-to-back wins since 2019 was a very disappointing one from a Tipp point of view." The win over Laois last Saturday was their third on the spin and a fourth against Galway in tomorrow's All-Ireland quarter-final would bridge yet another gap to 2019. There's one more too: a victory would send Tipperary into their first semi-final in six years, which is already the longest streak that they've had without reaching the last four since 1971-87. They have lost quarter-finals to tomorrow's opponents in 2020 and 2023, as well as to Waterford in 2021. Maher was injured two years ago and so didn't feature against Galway, though the game had a similar backdrop to this one as Tipp had just come through a routine preliminary quarter-final against Offaly seven days earlier. 'I remember that game down in Limerick, we were fully primed,' he recalled. 'One or two things went against us, goals went against us and it just deflated us that day. 'But I don't think it had anything to do with the Offaly game the week before, to be honest. I just think Galway were hungrier on the day and they just got over the line.' Maher was always going to call it quits regardless of how the 2024 season played out, but it still represented an inglorious end to his decorated career. The recent uplift doesn't give him any cause for regret at not giving it another year, however. 'I was happy to walk away at that stage with the body in semi-good nick and being able to walk away with a bit of pride in myself. 'Coming to the end of '24, I knew that the campaign didn't go well, but I could see the green shoots that were in there around the group. I knew Tipperary would do well moving forward. 'Another thing I said to myself was maybe the time for me to step away is now and give some younger player, one of them under-20s, an opportunity to come into the panel, take a place, and drive it on from there.' His departure left just one survivor from the 2010 All-Ireland winning side - Noel McGrath, who is still doing a job for the team. Maher added: "We can all see that Noel is a generational player. He's always had it since we were playing together at minor and I suppose under-16 level. He's always had something special about him. Fair play to him, he's some operator. 'It was a joy to play beside him for so long. You probably don't see half the work that he does away from the field to get himself into the condition. He looks after himself fierce well to still be able to operate at the level he is. 'He's up there with one of the best club hurlers in Tipperary as well. You'll see him any day lining out for Loughmore and how he can make the sliotar talk. It's great to see that he's still doing the job and it looks like there's plenty left in the tank with him too, which is great to see."
The 42
2 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
Jake Morris: 'We were embarrassed, a lot of soul-searching done over the winter'
AMIDST THE STRUGGLES that the Tipperary hurlers have endured over the past few seasons, the disconnect between those on the pitch and those in the stands was evident. When they breezed to a comfortable win in late January over Galway in the league, manager Liam Cahill touched on that subject that day in Salthill when appealing to crowds to get behind a team that he was trying to develop. 'I'd ask the Tipp supporters to be brave as well and come out and support them. There's not much bravery in going up to Croke Park every year over the last decade for semi-finals and All-Irelands and all that. 'They're easy things to do and I think regardless whether people believe in Liam Cahill and his coaching team or his coaching philosophy, these players will be around long after I'm gone. 'They're the catalyst to everything that gives us the joy that is being a Tipperary supporter so get in behind them, support them and they'll respond.' Almost five months on and there is a shift in the mood that is easy to detect. The recent All-Ireland U20 title win was a boost for the future, qualifying from the Munster senior round-robin bearpit was a positive for the present. Last year saw Tipperary in error mode as they failed to win a game in the province and shipped some heavy beatings, most noticeably when conceding 4-30 against Cork in Thurles. They have looked revitalised this season and forward Jake Morris can sense the fanbase rowing in behind them. Advertisement 'It's massive. You're down the home straight of a match down in Ennis and in Semple Stadium the last day against Waterford and you hear the chanting going, 'Tipp, Tipp, Tipp' and you know that they're going to roar you out over the line. 'All Tipperary supporters are very fair, they just want to see a team that are battling hard and giving it their all. That's why they're getting behind us now, because it's a team that they can enjoy going to watch.' Morris feels it has been a gradual process in regaining that support. 'It's been week-on-week in the league where we've been giving performances and we've been trying hard. The battling and the desire to hurl for Tipperary has been evident in players that are putting on the jersey. 'I don't think there was an exact turning point. Getting to the league final was nice. Drawing against Limerick probably did plant the seed with a lot of Tipp supporters that, 'Ok these lads, they mean business, they're competitive again'.' Tipperary supporters cheer on the arrival of their team at Cusack Park, Ennis. Natasha Barton / INPHO Natasha Barton / INPHO / INPHO The fallout from last season was difficult for the Tipperary player group with a lot of time for contemplation of what direction they were going in. Avoiding the scrutiny of a demanding Tipperary public was not an option. 'We were embarrassed walking around. You have to go to work, you can't hide away. We were in the trenches after last year. We had to deal with it face on and take our constructive criticism. 'There was a lot of soul-searching done over the winter. A lot of hard looks in the mirror and seeing what can be done more. To be fair, lads have done it and so have the management team. They have come with us every way in this journey. It hasn't been pointed just at the players, they've taken on the flack as well and together as a unit, we've worked hard and we've got ourselves into this situation now where we're still alive in the championship.' Tipperary manager Liam Cahill dejected during last year's game against Cork. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO If there was a spark that ignited them, perhaps it was late June last year when the county's minor team won the All-Ireland final in heroic fashion in Nowlan Park, overcoming the setback of two red cards to emerge victorious against Kilkenny. 'I was down in Nowlan Park myself that day,' remarks Morris. 'It was in terms of looking at a team that fought on their backs together, a united team, a good battling Tipperary team, that never-say-die attitude. You never mind losing a game as long as you've shown up and you've performed and you've fought on your back and you can come away together on the bus afterwards and you can look at each other. 'The manner of some of the defeats last year wasn't acceptable. There was a bit of lessons taken from looking at 16 and 17-year-olds performing last year in Nowlan Park.' Tipperary's Jake Morris celebrates a score against Limerick in the Munster SHC. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO Morris is one of the survivors from Tipperary's last All-Ireland final success, coming off the bench as a youngster and firing over a point in that tie with Kilkenny. He was conscious this year of stepping up. Galway are the upcoming challenge in Saturday's quarter-final. 'Look, I've been around since 2018. I know I only turned 26 there a couple of weeks ago, but I've seen a lot. Leadership is off the field and on the field and we've a lot of good leaders in that dressing room. 'I think for myself it was just a look in the mirror and to say I need to do more. It's not about giving big, massive speeches in the dressing room. It's about leading on the field and that's consciously what I was trying to go after.' 'We're well used to the knockout hurling. You lose and you're done. You're playing for your life at this stage.' *****
