Fáilte chuig gaa.ie - suíomh oifigiúil CLG

Hurling

hurling

Padraic Maher: 'We are gutted'

Padraic Maher

Padraic Maher

By William Dunne

Tipperary’s Paudie Maher cut a disconsolate figure underneath the Kinnane Stand after Sunday’s Munster Quarter-Final defeat to Cork.

Earlier in the afternoon he’d experienced the pride of leading his county out in the championship as team captain for the first time, but the day he’d long dreamed of turned into a nightmare.

He struggled to keep his emotions in check when he reviewed the game afterwards, and the hurt he was clearly feeling backed up his assertion that Tipp didn’t lose the match because of any deficit of desire.

“Our performance wasn’t great but we’re not questioning anybody’s desire. We wanted to win that as much as cork did”, said Maher.

“It’s just they were that bit sharper on the day and I suppose that bit of hunger just came out on top.

“As Kieran Kingston said in the dressing room to us, they were waiting 12 months for us and fair dues to them they got the result and totally deserved it.”

Maher admitted the game had been played on Cork’s terms for most of the contest, and was frustrated that when Tipperary got themselves in a position to win it with their second-half goal they were unable to kick on.

“They took the game to us from the very start,” he said. “That made us chase them all over the field but I thought when we got it back, when we got a point up we were going to stay on top but again fair play to them they got back. They got the goal it was a killer. We are gutted.”

The sides were level on 13 occasions throughout the game and Maher said that this tit for tat nature was something that Tipp wanted to avoid heading into the game.

“We didn’t want to get in a shoot-out with cork, they are so dangerous”, he said.

“That’s what they want. That’s what I mean by the game was dictated like that it went into a shoot-out and they came out on top in the end unfortunately.”

One Tipperary player who did seem to relish the shoot-out was centre-forward Michael Breen who scored six points from play and was his team’s most consistently effective player.

He believes the only antidote for the defeat will be for the whole panel to work even harder in the coming weeks.

“Work rate is the only thing we can do”, said Breen. “Back to Dr Morris (Park). Back in here to work our socks off. Look, it’s tough coming in as number one from last year but last year is over.

“We have an ‘X’ on our backs now. We have to come up with something new for the rest of the year. Today wasn’t good enough. The Munster championship is over for Tipperary. It’s all about the next day now.”