Two years ago, Tipperary football was in crisis following the decision to withdraw from the All-Ireland qualifiers. But things are looking a lot rosier now, according to highly-rated half back Cian Maher. Cian Maher's debut season with the Tipperary senior footballers doesn't hold particularly fond memories. The year was 2004 and will be remembered as one of the most turbulent in the county's GAA history. The Tipp footballers took the unprecedented step of withdrawing their services ahead of an All-Ireland qualifier game against Fermanagh in a show of support for then manager Andy Shorthall who, along with his selectors, stepped down over the fixing of a club hurling match involving two of his players. The whole episode was hugely embarrassing for the Tipperary county board, who were accused of not showing the county footballers the same respect as their hurling counterparts. "It was a terrible time, but thankfully that's all behind us now," says rising Tipp football star Cian Maher. "Things have improved dramatically on and off the field since then. We're well looked after by the county board and our results have improved as well. We've had a reasonably successful league campaign and looked forward to the championship with a great deal of hope." Under the management of Seamus McCarthy and his selectors Colm O'Flaherty (Cahir), Jim Healy (Loughmore) and John Owens (Moyle Rovers), Tipp have made steady progress since the bitter events of two years ago. Last season, the Premier County celebrated a rare football success when they beat Wexford in Croke Park to capture the Tommy Murphy Cup. And their encouraging form in the recent NFL Division 2B campaign suggests they are intent on building on that achievement. Tipp weren't far away from securing promotion, finishing just two points adrift of Westmeath who claimed second spot in the division behind Louth. In what was regarded as their best league campaign in many years, Tipp recorded wins over Sligo, Waterford, Wicklow and Antrim, and were only narrowly beaten by Westmeath and Cavan. In their final outing against Antrim at Semple Stadium, Seamus McCarthy's charges came from 10 points down to claim a morale-boosting 2-13 to 2-10 victory. It looked to be a case of mission impossible for Tipp when goals from Kevin Brady and Tony Scullion propelled the visitors into a 2-6 to 0-2 lead. But Tipp finished the first half with a flourish - Benny Hickey goaled in the 32nd minute and former All-Star Declan Browne added another major in injury-time to leave the sides level on 2-6 apiece at the interval. Antrim regained the lead after the restart, but Tipperary rattled off five unanswered points in the closing stages to end the campaign on a high. "The manner in which we finished the league was very encouraging. To win a game in which we trailed by 10 points was a great feeling and shows the belief and character that is in the team at present," enthuses Maher, who has impressed in the half back position this season. "After winning the Tommy Murphy Cup last year, we went to New York and within a few weeks of returning, we were back training again. We had a meeting before Christmas and everyone agreed that promotion in the league was a realistic target. "Obviously, we were disappointed not to achieve that, but we could take a lot of positives from the campaign nonetheless. We won four of our seven matches and could just as easily have beaten Cavan and Westmeath. Cavan only beat us by a point, and if we had taken our chances against Westmeath, we could have made amends for our unlucky defeat to them in last year's All-Ireland qualifier. "We've been training hard since last November and I think this has been a major factor in our improvement. We've been a weights programme over the past few months and have a dietician working with us as well. It's the small things like this that make a difference," the Fethard clubman adds. After the National League ended, Tipp geared all their preparations towards the Munster championship. Unfortunately, All-Ireland champions Kerry ended their Munster hopes at the semi-final stage before Longford eliminated them from the All-Ireland qualifiers at Pearse Park. Maher had represented Tipp at underage level before being drafted onto the senior panel by Andy Shorthall for the 2004 National League campaign. However, he had to wait until last year to make his championship debut against Westmeath in the All-Ireland qualifiers. He subsequently played against Leitrim in the first round of the Tommy Murphy Cup, but missed the semi-final and final against Roscommon and Wexford respectively as he was in Australia at the time. The 24-year-old graduated from University of Limerick last year with a degree in Business Studies and Marketing. During his time in UL, he played on the Sigerson Cup team alongside Tipp's Niall Fitzgerald, Eoin Keating from Limerick, Monaghan's Stephen Gollogly, Padraig McMahon from Laois, Shane Briggs from Waterford and Kevin O'Sullivan from Cork. Cian recently started a new job with Roadstone, having previously worked for his father Michael's building and civil engineering company, MC Maher & Son Ltd. Based in Fethard, the company was established 30 years ago and has successfully completed numerous developments over the years. Cian's mother, Eileen, is actually a first cousin of Seanie O'Leary, the Cork hurling hero of the 1970s and 1980s. At club level, Maher won a county senior football championship medal in 2001 when Fethard beat Aherlow in the decider, and went on to contest the Munster club final against Nemo Rangers. But in each of the past four years, Fethard - who also supply Paul Fitzgerald, Aidan Fitzgerald, Brian Coen and Glen Burke to the county panel - have been beaten at the penultimate stage of the county championship. "Losing four county semi-finals in-a-row has been hard to take and we are determined to put that right this year. Tom Anglim, the former Tipperary player, is managing us and ex-Kilkenny hurler Denis Byrne is doing the physical work with us. We are keeping our fingers crossed that things will go well for us over the next few months," concludes Cian, who also plays intermediate hurling for the south Tipperary club. Tweet

Most Read Stories