Tipperary full back Padraic Maher says the Premier County's stunning All-Ireland semi-final display was always on the cards.

Tipp threw off the shackles to trounce Cork in Sunday's historic all-Munster affair at Croke Park and Maher insists a performance of that calibre was always imminent:

"Look, to be honest with you and I'm not messing here - that was coming the whole time. Ever since Clare in the league semi-final, we've been training very well," the Thurles Sarsfields ace states in The Irish Times.

"Unfortunately things didn't go our way in the last few minutes against Limerick. But we kept doing what we were doing. Training was great, the matches were great and we just kept doing it.

"Thankfully we started getting the results and reaping the rewards. But we have to up it again somehow over the next few weeks. There's no point getting this far and putting in all the hard work unless we get the result.

"You could sense it in training, we knew we were capable of a big performance. We had to keep the pressure on Cork because they can get a run on you. With the quality of the forwards they have, they will punish you.

"It was a good thing from us that we kept our foot on the pedal. It was very disappointing to give away the goal near the end but if that's all we are giving out about it's not too bad." Tweet

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