Ronan Maher should feel very much at home at Semple Stadium on Sunday.
The Tipperary centre-back is Thurles born-and-bred.
He lines out for the famous Thurles Sarsfields club, he’s still living at the family home in the town and he’s even teaching in one of the local secondary schools.
This weekend he’ll be at the heart of the action as the Munster Senior Hurling Championship bursts back into life.
Tipp take on Cork at Semple Stadium, writing the latest chapter in the story of one of Ireland’s most enduring sporting rivalries.
Maher, a 20-year-old in his fourth year with the Premier County’s Under-21s and his third with the seniors, is already an established face at the top level.
This season he’s been handed the job of solving Tipp’s problems in the centre-back jersey which have existed since Conor O’Mahony’s retirement.
The Mary Immaculate College teaching student, who is currently on a work placement at Thurles CBS, will line out alongside his brother, wing-back Paudie.
“It’s an honour; playing alongside your brother at Croke Park or in the stadium there (Semple) is a dream, which has been fulfilled the last two years,” he said.
“Something I dreamed of growing up, watching the matches. Please God it continues. We want to try and get more medals behind our back.”
Tipp and Cork are Munster royalty and between them they have nearly 60 All-Ireland titles.
But they have slipped down the pecking order recently and many view Clare and Waterford as better bets to take the provincial crown this year.
The Rebels in particular are going through a rough patch, having not beaten Tipp in the Championship since 2010.
Tipp bounced back that season to win the Liam MacCarthy, but they haven’t sent a captain up the steps of the Hogan Stand since then and last year they were disappointing losers to Galway in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Clare and Waterford played out a belter of a Division 1 League final replay recently, with the Banner coming out on top to take the title the Deise won last year.
“Shivers went down my spine that day. it was a great win for the county and the house." - Ronan Maher
“Naturally. Clare after going a long way in the League are going to be talked about in terms of an All-Ireland win,” said Maher.
“To see Waterford and Clare have two tough battles will do them a lot of good going in the Championship.
“Kilkenny are always up there. There is not much talk about us at the minute. Please god, starting on Sunday, we can get off to a winning start.
“Any day Cork come to Thurles, they bring everything. They’re going to bring their fight, their hurling, everything. We’ll just have to deal with that on Sunday and just concentrate on ourselves.”
Ronan was in the Croke Park stands as a teenager alongside his mother when big brother Paudie won his All-Ireland medal after the epic 2010 final win against the Cats.
That fuelled his young imagination and he wants to bring another Celtic Cross medal back to Thurles.
“Shivers went down my spine that day. it was a great win for the county and the house,” he recalls.
“The two of us are at home, driving the mother mad!” he laughed.
Dublin v Wexford (Saturday 7.15pm) and Tipperary v Cork (Sunday 4pm) will be shown live on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, with live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 and live blogs on RTE.ie
