Passion still burning bright for Ronan Maher as Tipperary show promise

The narrative around Tipperary senior hurling these past few years has been played on a loop and hard to avoid.

Negativity was again fuelled by last year's beating against Cork in a Semple Stadium absolutely decked out in red, supporters not showing up like they used to, Liam Cahill and his management team coming under pressure, and a transition of players away from a golden generation to a much younger squad.

But the county had been struggling to keep apace with the top sides for the previous seasons.

The 2024 Munster Championship saw them earn just one point from four games.

The year before, they gained four points from four games, beat Offaly in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final but lost by two points to Galway in the quarter-final proper.

In 2022, with Colm Bonnar at the helm, they lost all four games and in 2021, Liam Sheedy’s last year, they lost the Munster final to Limerick by five points.

However, they have been impressive in the underage stakes, winning two All-Ireland minor titles and a Munster Under-20 crown.

So it has been a mix of good and bad.

This year has been really encouraging so far, with three wins from four in the Allianz Hurling League, beating Galway, Cork and Wexford, losing to Limerick.

Maher is in no frame of mind to tolerate the outside narrative of them being a good league team but vulnerable to fading through summer.

"It has been a really good start," he told RTÉ Sport. "Three from four is good considering it’s a tough league.

"It has been really beneficial for a team like us to learn lots about ourselves and now we aim to put in a good performance against Kilkenny [on Sunday]."

As a senior player and captain, he looks out for the younger lads, but points out that they are mature beyond their