Tipperary's captain fantastic Maher meets Laois GAA legend in Portlaoise

Laois’ only ever Hurling All-Star, Pat Critchley, joined the celebrations at the Midlands Park Hotel on Wednesday, August 13, as Laois Community Garda Ronan Maher was honoured for captaining Tipperary to All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship glory.

READ NEXT: Eyecatching win for Holycross in first round of Tipperary senior hurling championship

Colleagues, family, friends, special guests, the Little Blue Heroes, and local supporters turned out in force to give Maher a hero’s reception. Among them was Critchley, who drew a special connection between Maher’s achievement and that of another Thurles Sarsfields great, the late Jimmy Doyle, whose ties to Portlaoise GAA run deep.

Doyle played in nine All-Ireland senior finals for Tipperary, winning six (1958, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965 and 1971), and captained the team to victory in 1962 and 1965. His sister Olive married Portlaoise man Owen Deegan, and Doyle went on to manage Portlaoise alongside Tom Lalor from 1980 to 1985 before taking charge of Laois from 1985 to 1988.

During his spell with Portlaoise, he led the club to four consecutive county titles from 1981 to 1984, ending a 38-year drought, before Camross stopped them in their bid for five-in-a-row.

Critchley recalled those days fondly as he saluted Maher’s historic season.

"Firstly, I'd like to congratulate Tipperary, and especially Ronan, on such an iconic win. To come from where they came from to win that game. There weren’t many giving them a chance before it, but for Rowan to have a savage game on the day and to captain the team, it’s massive.

"The connection that I talk about, Jimmy Doyle's sister Olive, God rest her soul, married Owen Deegan, their son Eugene has a barber shop on the main street.

"That's how he came to train us in 1981. We hadn't won a county final for 40-odd years, since 1943. I'll always remember what he said: when you're winning, stay winning as much as you can when you can, because there'll be lots of years where you won't.

"We won four in a row, with Jimmy there every year. That really struck a chord with me when I saw Ronan’s photograph going up on the wall in Thurles Sarsfields, the first captain since Jimmy Doyle. That's the bones of 60 years, since the 60s," Critchley said.

For Maher, becoming the ninth Thurles Sarsfields player to captain Tipperary to an All-Ireland title, and the first since Doyle, was a dream realised. His picture now joins the club’s famous 'wall of winning captains',  a place steeped in family and club tradition.

"It's got plenty of attention since the All-Ireland Final. I’ve said it in previous interviews and podcasts, I had that picture of the wall as my screensaver since 2023, so it's something I was trying to achieve. We were rock bottom the last two years, so it really was an iconic win, like you said, and one that will go down in history.

"It was a privilege for me to represent Thurles Sarsfields and my family, and to get up on the wall was just an extra little treat at the end.

"My great-granduncle was up on the wall already and my great-grandfather was the first Tipperary captain, so there's huge history on that wall, a great connection, and like I said, it was something I was trying to achieve, and I couldn’t do it without the lads back in Tipp. My club means everything; my family knows that. Hurling comes first in our house; my life revolves around it, so yeah, it's just great to be up on the wall now," Maher said.

The All-Ireland win was the culmination of years of work and a return to the top after a difficult period for Tipperary. Maher explained the mindset and preparation that helped him lead his team to glory.

"The lead-up to a game like that is the very same as going out to play a challenge game; that's the approach I like to take, but I do like to keep myself in a routine, if that's doing mobility work on a Saturday. I spend the majority of my time in the kitchen, cooking food, trying to get myself ready for the day after.

"I also do a lot of journaling, and I look back at an awful lot of clips throughout the week, of good parts of my performances that I've done throughout the year, and also things that I should improve on.

"My mother will speak the same for me there, because a lot of the time, it's just consuming food in the kitchen. She does give out to me a little bit at a time as well.

"Listen, it's about keeping a routine the whole time, and surrounding yourself with players who are going out doing the same thing the day after. Keep in the routine, stay as relaxed as possible, you don't want to waste energy before a game, because it's four o'clock or half three on a Sunday that you need that for. We've been there, we've done it plenty of times before, we've played hundreds of games, so it's just about taking the same approach to it.

"All-Ireland Final day, it's a pressurised environment for everyone, for our family, for the players, but we train all year round to get ourselves into that position.

"I know people in the build-up were saying don't think about it too much, and everything that goes on after, but we're privileged to be in that position, and we've trained for it all year, so why not enjoy that moment? Why not enjoy the build-up?

"In 2019, we thought we'd be back in the All-Ireland Final the year after, but we didn't get back to Croke Park for six years. You can't take these moments for granted, and we certainly won't in Tipperary, but hopefully next year, we'll be back here again," Maher ended.

The night was as much a celebration of community as it was of sporting success, a Laois Garda and a Laois hurling legend united in recognising an achievement that will stand in Tipperary and Thurles Sarsfields' history for decades to come.

ALSO READ:  Closure orders issued to two Tipperary food businesses