by Daragh Ó Conchúir

Caoimhe Maher loves playing camogie and relishes being in the midst of the pressure cooker on the biggest days with Tipperary.

It helps that the joint vice-captain is wired to enjoy the lifestyle of a high performance athlete. So she retains a compelling enthusiasm, 13 years removed from that first thrilling call-up to the senior panel having helped Tipp win their first All-Ireland minor title in 2011, and a week after celebrating her 30th birthday.

Maher admits however, that stepping away for a couple of years during Covid was a vital piece in the jigsaw.

The Burgess-Duharra playmaker was possibly getting a little stale, after combining studies and college camogie with everything else. The sabbatical renewed and reinvigorated her. It provided affirmation that playing for Tipperary was what she wanted to do and at the same time, scratched the itch surrounding what life outside the bubble might look like.

“At that time, I was living in Dublin,” Maher details. “I finished college, was working for the first time. I had started out being with the group and traveling up and down. And to be honest, it just took a lot out of me, and having been involved for that many years, in that kind of ongoing cycle, it was just the right thing for me to do, to step away, to take a break, physically, mentally. Do other things.

“Unfortunately, I didn't get to do a whole lot, because Covid was around but it did do me the world of good because I came back from that break a completely different player. I got to spend time doing other things, other fitness things, things I would have never got the opportunity to do.

“So I came back from that really renewed in terms of, I knew that I wanted to come back. I knew it would be a challenge to come back, but I knew it was something I was ready to do, and that I was probably better equipped to give a good crack at as well having taken the break.

She expands on her frame of mind prior to the hiatus.

“I was probably in a position where I was playing camogie not necessarily in the best shape. I had kind of lost - no, I wouldn't say I lost any love for it - but it kind of just became a routine that was happening in the background, as opposed to something that I was really looking forward to do every day, which would have meant I probably wasn't making the best choices around minding myself and all of the stuff that's involved.

“It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, to actually cut ties, and I shed a lot of tears when I when I made that decision, because it was part of who I am. I didn't know anything different, but it was definitely the best thing I ever did.

“I went away, got to focus really on myself, and kind of questioned whether or not it was something that I wanted to do. And it didn't take long for me to find out that absolutely it was, but I knew I needed to work on a couple of different things myself, to put myself in the best position so that when I came back, I was going to be able to give it the crack that I would have wanted to.”

Going back this year was different to any other however, as some familiar faces were absent. All-Stars Mary Ryan, part of the squad since 2005, and Cáit Devane have retired. So too, Maher’s teammates on the first Tipperary squad to win the All-Ireland minor championship in 2011, Nicole Walsh and Tess Ryan.

Scoring machine, Eimear McGrath is out for the season with a cruciate knee ligament, while skipper Karen Kennedy’s long-standing shoulder issue will keep her out for most of the Very League, and Karin Blair is also rehabbing a shoulder injury.

But that allows Denis Kelly and his backroom staff - which also includes the returning Dinny Ferncombe to join his brother Michael after a year with Galway - to inculcate some newbies from the All-Ireland and Munster-winning premier junior and minor squads.

That integration was helped on Tuesday night, at a function where those teams received their medals, while the seniors were presented with their Very League Division 1A mementoes, having ended a 20-year famine in national competition with defeat of Galway.

“The girls that have retired have been a credit themselves, to the county, to all their families. You grow up playing camogie with those people, and it's different when they're not around anymore. But we just have to adapt.

“Because it hasn't been that long, we'd still be referring back to them in training when we're cracking jokes and doing this and that, and kind of remembering stuff that we would have been doing together.

“So it'll be different, but ultimately, all it does is provide opportunities to new people, right? Unfortunately, we can't all be around for forever.”

Tipperary get the defence of their title under way at The Ragg today (2pm) against last year’s Division 1B champions Dublin. They do so having analysed what they need to take from the agonising one-point All-Ireland semi-final loss to Galway but buoyed by the knowledge that they are right in the mix for honours.

“We've obviously spent quite a lot of time reflecting on it, what we could learn from it. Ultimately, we know we're there or thereabouts. Yeah, we haven't got over the line yet, but we don't have to reinvent the wheel as such to get there. It’s those small, little decisions being made that we can improve on, what are the behaviours that we can then implement on the field.

“I think as a team, a lot of the talk is always about the output, right? And we all go into that game actually thinking about the goal being the win. But I think going forward, probably what we'll try to do is break that down, instead of just being outcome driven as such, let's focus on those small moments, on those small processes during the game that we know when you stack those up, one on top of the other, ultimately, that's what, that's what's going to win, right?

“Winning the League last year was very, very positive. It was important for us as a team, that we got to win on the day. To be even there and to be in that environment, to get used to what that feels like. To be in Croke Park and on the journey up there and all of those kind of bits and pieces.

“And you're grateful that you've got the win and you've got the medal out of it, because a lot of us have put a lot of time without necessarily having a whole mile to show for it. So like, it was definitely important to us and kind of drove us on, and it also was important to us in terms of playing those teams who we would have come out on the wrong side against over the last couple of years and actually coming out on top.

“So we’re raring to go now. Dublin are going to be ferocious competitors. They're coming off the back of a really, really positive season last year for themselves too. So hopefully it’ll be a good clash in The Ragg on Saturday to get the year started.”

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