Rejuvenated Caoimhe Maher a familiar driving force in Tipp's league title defence

Caoimhe Maher loves playing camogie and relishes being in the midst of the pressure cooker on the biggest days with Tipperary.

She retains a compelling enthusiasm, 13 years removed from that first thrilling call-up to the senior panel having helped Tipp win their first All-Ireland minor title in 2011 and a week after celebrating her 30th birthday.

Tipp's vice-captain admits however that stepping away for a couple of years during Covid was a vital piece in the jigsaw.

The Burgess-Duharra playmaker was possibly getting a little stale, combining studies and college camogie with everything else.

"At that time, I was living in Dublin," Maher details. "I finished college, was working for the first time. I had started out being with the group and traveling up and down. And to be honest, it just took a lot out of me, and having been involved for that many years, in that kind of ongoing cycle, it was just the right thing for me to do, to step away, to take a break, physically, mentally. Do other things.

"Unfortunately, I didn't get to do a whole lot, because Covid was around but it did do me the world of good because I came back from that break a completely different player. I got to spend time doing other things, other fitness things, things I would have never got the opportunity to do.

She expands on her frame of mind prior to the hiatus.

"I was probably in a position where I was playing camogie not necessarily in the best shape," she says. "I had kind of lost - no, I wouldn't say I lost any love for it - but it kind of just became a routine that was happening in the background, as opposed to something that I was really looking forward to do every day, which would have meant I probably wasn't making the best choices around minding