By John Harrington

Like every other Tipperary hurling supporter, Paudie Maher found last Sunday’s eight-point Munster SHC defeat to Clare difficult to watch.

What made it more painful for him than most is that he was a member of that Tipp panel until injury forced him to retire earlier this year, so he still has many friendships in the group as well as a family tie with his brother and team captain, Ronan Maher.

“Obviously I soldiered with a lot of them for years and my brother is involved with the team,” said Maher today at the launch of Darkness Into Light 2022.

“It’s disappointing alright. You’d love to be able to help them in some way. It’s tough for them at the moment. It’s hard when you’re not winning and then when the performance is poor everyone is on your back.

“I’ve been in that position before, coming off the back of a poor performance and a bad defeat. You know the supporters won’t be happy and what’s written about you…It’s tough going. It’s a difficult part of being an inter-county player but they’ll just have to get on with it now.

“They’ll have to try and turn it around in two weeks to give themselves any bit of an opportunity to make it through this round-robin. Even if they do win the two games, I know it’s not guaranteed but they still have to give themselves a chance and there’s still four points to play for. That’s the way you have to look at it.”

In an interview with Tipp FM earlier this week, former Tipperary minor and U-21 team manager, Willie Maher, said: “The game has moved, we have to move with it.

"We have really good players and if we were set up properly and coached like that to play a modern game, I think there’d maybe be less despair and things like Sunday wouldn’t happen.”

Paudie Maher thinks his namesake’s concerns are understandable, but believes players must still try harder and that the county’s supporters need to show some patience with team manager, Colm Bonnar, as he oversees a period of transition.

“Whatever about game-plans and things like that, players can still go out and give their all and try their best and work as hard as they can,” said Maher.

“I'd say a few of the lads leaving on Sunday wouldn't have been happy with their performance in that regard.

“Now, in saying that, I can see what Willie is saying as well in that there was probably a bit of a malfunction there in terms of a game-plan or style of play. But I said at the start that the Tipp public have to be patient because they're trying something different and you don't just click your fingers.

“Limerick and Waterford didn't just click their fingers and decide they were going to play this way and it worked straight away. They've been doing it for a number of years now. Tipp are starting to change a bit now and it's not going to come together as quickly as people might think. There will be a few up and downs and obviously the last few weeks have been down.

“As regards the Tipp public, they have to be patient. Look, I get that you'd expect the performance levels to be better and I suppose the honesty and endeavour needs to be better as well but as regards the game-plan it's going to break down as well because players are getting used to it.

“This is the white-hot heat of Munster Championship hurling and it's going to be difficult to execute it properly in these games. But hopefully over the next couple of weeks and months and it could be next year before Tipp start to show the true fruits of it.

“Definitely there's a few things they have to tweak as regards the game-plan. But, again, I think players will have to up their performance for the next day.”

On the face of it, a trip to play All-Ireland champions Limerick in the TUS Gaelic Grounds next weekend looks like a thankless task on the back of two defeats from two matches in the Munster SHC for this Tipperary team.

But Maher believes it’s a perfect opportunity for the players to channel their disappointment in a positive way and produce a performance to silence their critics.

“I think every team and every sportsperson might do that,” he says. “You can use it for a siege mentality feeling within the group. Look, there's a lot of experience in that team. They're all going to be hurting, I presume, well I hope they'll be hurting, from the past few weeks and what people are saying and feeling after the Clare game.

“You can use that to give you more energy if you want. You always talked over the years not to let too much things seep in but I do think players do use certain things to their advantage and I've no doubt that lads might want to go and prove to everyone that they are still a good side and they're worth something bigger maybe.

“It hasn't worked the last few weeks, but whatever way to prove people wrong than to go down to the Gaelic Grounds and give a good performance and account of yourself against Limerick and see where it takes you.

“In that regard, that's a very exciting prospect ahead of you. Going down there and proving people wrong in the All-Ireland Champions' back-yard.”

Even if Tipperary play with more fight and tactical nous against Limerick, Maher admits it’ll be a huge task to defeat a team he regards as still being better than any other in the Championship

“Make no bones about it, it’s going to be a hard task, a very uphill task,” he said.

“The way Limerick are going at the moment, they’re flying. People are talking about all the injuries they have at the moment but the players coming in just seem to seamlessly slot into any position on the pitch.

“They’re all so well-coached and managed. They’re playing to a certain style or playing the game a certain way on the pitch so that they all know their roles, whether they’re No 26 on the panel or No 8. They know what is expected of them.

“They make it look so easy, so robotic in that they all know what they’re doing. It seems to work and teams are finding it hard to break it down.

“At the moment you’d have to say it’s very hard to see if anyone is going to be able to break it down this year.”