By John Harrington

Padraic Maher’s eighth Championship campaign for Tipperary has arguably been his best yet.

The Thurles Sarsfields man has excelled from wing-back and looks in better physical shape now that at any time previously in his inter-county career.

He’s always been a serious physical specimen capable of overpowering most with his sheer strength, but now he looks leaner and faster than ever before and credits Tipperary strength and conditioning coach Lukasz Kirszenstein for this evolution.

“A lot of other years I have, working with the trainers, concentrated on lifting a lot of weights,” says Maher. “While that has all been fine, we have changed our exercises where it is a lot more explosive which suits me a lot more. Some other lads might want to get bulkier but this suited me more to get more mobile around the field and I feel that I have been.

“It has helped my hurling too, again it comes with experience and year after year you are learning new things and it’s suiting at the moment so long may it continue.

“We work one on one with Lukasz and try new things and it’s kind of working at the moment and thank God I am staying injury free at the moment and that’s the main thing. The fitness levels are up as well for this time of the year especially, the boys are in good shape, and Lucasz has done great work with us all, again he is there to do things one on one which is great.”

Maher has played as a full-back and centre-back at different times with Tipperary, but he’s always looked most comfortable at wing-back. The rapid development of his brother Ronan into a first-rate centre-back has released the elder Maher back to the wing this year, and he’s thrived.

Not only has he defended stoutly, he’s also been a consistent threat for Tipperary as an attacker and has scored in all four of their Championship matches to date.

“At centre back you have to anchor the defence and hold the shape where at wing back, I won’t say it is gone like football, but Mick (Ryan) lets us go with a bit of freedom, if there is a gap open for you he’d say to take it. It’s a very enjoyable way to play it.

“Wing forwards in a lot of teams now work back the field and as a wing back you go a certain distance with them and if you get the opportunity then, the likes of Dan (McCormack) has thrown out to me two or three of my scores this year through the hard work he is putting in, winning the ball and I am there on the of it to finish it off.

“It’s just about finding yourself in these positions and being very adaptable to them all.”

Familiarity with those around him in this new-look Tipperary defence has also bred content. He knows his brother Ronan’s game inside out and it’s been notable how well the two of them have covered for one another at various times during this Championship campaign.

“It is a bit of familiarity, and Michael (Cahill) behind me as well so I am surrounded by club lads,” says Maher. “It helps a small bit communication wise and we know our game from the club as well.

“At the end of the day he is well able to look after himself, he is manning that position very well so it makes my job a small bit easier beside me too.

“It’s very enjoyable as well, we are thoroughly enjoying our hurling. As a defensive unit we have been happy with the way the year has gone, the two goals against Galway were disappointing enough but at least we have another day out to rectify that.

“Ronan is well able to look after himself. He has been fine, ever since he came onto the team as a minor at 17, they won the minor All Ireland, he has been able to take it in his stride from there. He is very calm and cool, nothing too much unnerves him or anything like that. I kind of leave him to it and he doesn’t really say too much to me about it either, he is very level headed and enjoying his hurling and he is showing it in his performances as well. He is care-free and has no fear. It’s great and long may it continue.”

When Padraic Maher is on song, Tipperary tend to win, which is probably why Kilkenny have made a point of targeting him whenever the teams have met in big matches in recent years.

Eddie Brennan was moved from corner-forward to wing-forward to go head to head with Maher for the 2011 All-Ireland Final, Richie Hogan was moved from midfield to centre-forward onto Maher for the 2014 All-Ireland Final replay, and the belief in Kilkenny going into Sunday’s match is that Walter Walsh will be given the job of knocking Maher out of his rhythm because he has done so in the past.

“I wouldn’t know if they were targeting me or not,” says Maher. “I don’t know what you can really say about things like that. When you come up against teams like that you are going to be marking top class players. You could be up against the likes of Walter Walsh who is 6ft 4, really strong powerful guy or up against Colin Fennelly who is more nifty, or Richie Hogan who is smaller and niftier.

“At this level and this stage of the years you are going to have to be able to adapt to that. If a team is targeting you, you have to take confidence from that and it might drive you on an extra gear or two and might make you a bit stronger on the day.”

When Tipperary beat Kilkenny in the 2010 All-Ireland Final and then won the All-Ireland U-21 Final a week later, they looked well primed to win more Liam MacCarthy Cups in the following years. Instead Kilkenny reasserted themselves to win four of the next five, whereas Tipperary have failed to win a single one since 2010.

In that time Tipperary have been knocked out of the Championship on four occasions by Kilkenny, twice in All-Ireland Finals, so Maher knows it’s going to take a hell of an effort to turn the tables on their great rivals.

“We have taken a lot of hits along the way,” he says. “We have gained a lot of experience too. Our panel is still fairly young, we are nearly the older lads on the panel, bar two or three lads out of the 36 man panel are about 26-27 years of age. So we are still relatively young but we have a lot of experience.

“We have been in this position before, how many finals it is now, we are preparing for a fifth final against Kilkenny, we have only come out the right side once so we have to find something different this time round to get over the line because we were close the last time, a puck of the ball but Kilkenny have always been on the right side of that puck of the ball.

They say Kilkenny don’t do tactics but I think they work to their structures very well. They work very hard for each other. They always seem to have bodies in the position where the ball is. That comes from constantly sticking to their plan, year in year out.

“It’s very hard to break down, people say you could have a tactic for this player or that player but when they bring the intensity that they do to a game, tactics go out the window at times. For us it is about matching that, bringing the bit of composure with it that maybe we can give the right delivery to our forwards.

“It’s just pure work-rate and they all fight for each other and we just have to mirror that.”

Despite their inability to beat Kilkenny or win an All-Ireland title in the last five championship campaigns, this Tipperary team and expectancy still goes hand in hand.

They’ve been told constantly they can’t afford to lose another big game to Kilkenny, which has to bring a pressure of its own. Maher is well aware his county expects going into Sunday’s All-Ireland Final.

“Tipperary hurling people want Tipperary to win. They expect to win the Liam MacCarthy every year and we as players, that is our aim every year is to win it as well.

“Obviously when you don’t win it or you put in a performance like we did against Galway last and lose you are going to get a bit of criticism. At this stage of our lives we are able to take that bit of criticism on the chin and move on. We have gained a lot of experience from it over the years.

“We have nothing against people being demanding, winning silverware because we expect it ourselves as players as we believe we have the talent to do that and if we are doing that then we are disappointed and obviously the supporters will be disappointed as well.

“It’s great that there is a bit of a buzz there at the moment but that buzz will only last if we bring back Liam MacCarthy and that is our full focus."