THE chaos of the battles between Tipperary against Kilkenny will never leave Brendan Maher.
Hurling’s greatest rivalry is renewed at Croke Park this afternoon for the first time in the Championship since the 2019 All-Ireland final.
Between 2009 and 2019, Maher faced the Cats NINE times in the Championship.
Seven of those showdowns were All-Ireland finals as both counties won three each, either side of a nail-biting draw in 2014.
An All-Star cast of Henry Shefflin, Eoin Kelly, Eoin Larkin, Lar Corbett, Jackie Tyrrell and Pádraic Maher lit up Croke Park and were directed by Brian Cody, Liam Sheedy, Michael Ryan and Eamon O’Shea.
Kilkenny reigned supreme in 2009 when they overturned a 0-21 to 0-19 deficit thanks to a late Shefflin penalty and a goal by Martin Comerford to win their fourth in a row.
Tipp derailed their Drive for Five when Corbett’s sensational hat-trick blew the Cats away a year later.
Kilkenny avenged that defeat in the 2012 semi-finals and 2013 qualifiers before the 2014 drawn final.
The teams were level 12 times and Hawk-Eye chalked off John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer’s free to win the game. A 2-5 haul from Séamus Callanan was not enough to win the replay.
But Maher lifted Liam MacCarthy as captain two years later when his old pal fired 0-13.
Tipp conquered again three years later when Richie Hogan saw red and Callanan, O’Dwyer and Niall O’Meara scored goals.
So Maher knows more than most what Tipp against Kilkenny means.
He told SunSport: “Look, it was the game for us because aside from 2015 and 2017-18, it was the penultimate game for us each year — whether that was a final or the likes of the qualifier or semi-final in 2012 and 2013.
“That trilogy of games in 2009, 2010 and 2011 will always go down as just an unbelievable time for hurling and an unbelievable rivalry between the two teams.
“The drawn game in 2014 is probably one of the best games ever that I played in.
“I think 2009 and 2010 are up there as well. But ’14, just for the free-scoring nature of it, it was unbelievable to be a part of.
“Especially in the early part of my career, it wasn’t that there weren’t other teams that were challenging, but we knew if we were going to win something you had to beat Kilkenny.
“And the purity of the rivalry I think is what people really bought into, because the game at that time was far less tactical.
“It was more about moving the ball as quickly as possible from one end of the field to the other, there was a lot of 50-50 battles.
“I’m not going to say it was a pure game because I think the game is really good at the moment.
“But it was maybe a simpler game and maybe a little bit more exciting to watch because of how lads approached it. You could just go 100 per cent at it.
“There were loads of mistakes, big hits, always good quality of hurling as well.
“I think that’s what Kilkenny had back then — that pure mix of skill and physicality and intensity and that’s why they were so good.”
2019 TRIUMPH
Tipp’s 2019 crown under Liam Sheedy was Maher’s third All-Ireland.
Little did he know his county would not hurl at HQ again until today.
Liam Cahill took the reins ahead of the 2023 season and Callanan, O’Dwyer, Pádraic Maher, Patrick Maher and Cathal Barrett have all left the fold.
Patience is not a virtue of the Premier support and Cahill was forced to plead for it after back-to-back All-Ireland Under-20 crowns under his watch in 2019 raised expectations.
Maher knew it would come, just as it did when they went six years without glory between 2010 and 2016.
Failing to win a game in the Munster SHC last year was a tough pill to swallow.
They took their medicine though, and did enough to seal third spot this time around before walloping Galway in the last six.
The Tipp faithful come to Croker this afternoon in hope and Maher hailed his county’s growth, no matter what unfolds today.
He said: “Regardless of the result, we have to be happy with the progress of the team this year.
“When you get to the semi-finals, the expectancy will be absolutely for Tipp to win.
“I know the bookies have it kind of 50-50, but I would have Kilkenny as slight favourites based on their experience at this stage and their development and where they’re at as a team.
“There’ll be disappointment if Tipp don’t get over the line, but that expectancy is hard and it’s very hard on management. It’s been very hard on Liam Cahill the last couple of years to try to deal with that.
“I’d love people to keep that perspective that in the last few years we’ve been a long way away from this kind of level of performance.
“So there’s been great progress and I think management and players deserve great credit for that, because I know what it’s like being in there and trying to get it going and trying to get performance levels back to where you know they should be.
“It’s not to try and take away pressure from the lads, but I do believe that regardless of results, 2025 has been a progressive year.
“But to be fair to them and to the players there was no deviation from what they were trying to do. They kept their heads down, they trained hard and that’s all you can ask.”
Borris–Ileigh clubman Maher climbed the Hogan Stand steps as Tipp captain nine years ago.
This week, he has been enjoying the build-up to hurling’s greatest rivalry as a supporter.
He said: “It’s obviously new territory for me over the last few years becoming a supporter, having just been involved in it, because all I knew was being a player up until then.
“It’s my first time going to Croke Park as a Tipperary supporter since I was a child, which is great.
“You just see the effort that’s being put in and you can obviously empathise when things go wrong, because you know what it’s like on the pitch and you know how hard it is to get it right.
“But I think the way that they went about it deserves great credit as well.
“There were no excuses made, there was no such thing as lads missing with injuries or any sort of thing like that over the last couple of years.
“It was always, ‘Today wasn’t good enough and we need to go back and improve and try and get better’.
“I think they have and they’re obviously not near a finished article and there’s no guarantee.
“I mean, it’s so difficult to get through this Championship.
“So I think we just need to enjoy the occasion as Tipperary supporters, hope for a performance and a result and if that comes, it will be a huge lift for the county.”
