Padraic Maher and Tipp are raring to go on Sunday

There'll be no crowds and they'll be using yellow sliothars, but the Munster championship is still the Munster championship, and if Tipperary are to win silverware in 2020, Padraic Maher will regard the medals as highly as any others.

The Thurles Sarsfields man confessed to being giddy with anticipation ahead of Sunday's Munster championship clash with Limerick in Pairc Úi Chaoimh and while he knows, there will be a different feel to everything, he also knows what these games mean to Tipperary supports.

“We saw it in the club championships what these matches mean to people. I never got to watch as many club games as I did online this year, and for those who won, we saw what it meant to them, and for those who lost out, we saw what it meant to them. So, while things are different this year, it will be up to the players to create our own atmosphere in the stadium for the games and to take it from there.

“If I am lucky enough to get a chance to win another medal and to compare it to any other, I'm sure I'll have the same regard for it, especially at this stage of my career,” he said.

Confessing that the back-to-back title issue has never been spoken about in the Tipp camp and is something which has perhaps been built up outside the circle of players and management, Padraic says that the GAA has come in for unfair criticism for running the games, and added that the panels are doing everything in their power to stay safe.

“I know it's a bit different for elite professional players who are staying within their bubble and all that, but we are training and playing and then going back into our day jobs. But, we are sticking to all the protocols from the GAA and from the government and doing everything we can to stay safe and healthy. The country needs a lift and the feeling is that the games can give that lift. There is no better organisation in the country to lift communities - we have seen that throughout this whole thing and hopefully the championship will do the same thing again,” he said.