'We want to lift that cup again and bring it back to The Town'- Portlaoise's Ricky Maher ahead of county final

Ricky Maher has won countless county medals for Portlaoise and knows the feeling of a county final day. The forward has been in and around the panel since 2009 and he says that preparations remain the same all these years later.

“That’s your goal for the year to get to the county final. Coming up to the final, even the quarter-final or semi-final, the preparations do increase. Your training gets more intense and you’re a lot more focused than the first few rounds. It’s really the business end of it. There’s nothing this week that will change from what we’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks. Training has been very good and there’s a really good feeling in the camp, the lads are really getting the best out of themselves. We’ve a very strong panel, there’s the 1 to 15 and you’ll always have five more lads coming on. It’s a good setup and it feels really good at the moment.”

Portlaoise’s starting 15 in their victory over Graiguecullen was littered with youth with as many as seven lads under the age of 23. Maher knows how important it is for those young lads to adapt to the Senior setup as quickly as possible.

“They’ve seemed to have slotted in seamlessly. That group of players are seriously talented, if you look at the likes of Damo and Swayne, they’re already inter-county senior players. I can bet that there’s a couple more from that group going to join them, the likes of Ben Reddin, Ben Dempsey and Conor Raggett. It’s Conor’s first year with us this year and he’s just slotted in like he’s been here for the last five or six years. It’s great for us because that’s exactly what we need from these young lads, for them to slot into the system of play that we are after adapting to. We also have leaders in that group which is great to see.”

IN PICTURES: Portlaoise, Shanahoe and Crettyard celebrate on Laois LGFA county finals day

“There are other young lads around the club, who aren’t getting their starting position yet but they are driving us on in training. DJ White, Mick Culliton, Josh Hogan, the O’Connell twins Ross Brennan and Jack Brown, there’s a lot of lads in the background who are pushing us all the way. These lads deserve a mention because they are the driving force behind the training and they get the best out of us.”

Along with all the young players, Portlaoise can still call on plenty of experience with lads involved who’ve won many county titles and these lads act as role models for the younger members of the panel.

“I think within any club, all youngsters are going to look towards the tallysmen. Lillis, Garreth and Paul Cahillane have all played inter-county for many years, they’ve a serious amount of medals for Portlaoise. Conor Boyle is always there to drive lads on and for advice. When you get to the latter stages of your career, that’s what’s expected of you as well and to drive on them young lads and to help them in any way possible. We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for those younger lads pushing us, it’s great to see.”

With this being the second time that Portlaoise have faced St Joseph’s, Maher says there’s a lot that they can take from that opening round loss.

“In the first-round game, we weren’t really up to speed at all. We realised that we weren’t at the stage that we wanted to be. I think after that game, we gathered ourselves and had a look at ourselves. There were things we were doing that we probably shouldn’t have been doing. Since then, I do feel like we have evolved as a team and we’re on a trajectory. I feel we are always improving every single game and there still are improvements from Sunday’s game. Joseph’s will be saying the same thing themselves, that they weren’t at their best the first night they played us. We’ve learned a lot from that game and it’s definitely been a learning curve for the rest of the championship.”

In terms of his overall game, Maher was superb in the semi-final victory with him getting three first-half scores and was instrumental for Portlaoise in the full-forward line.

“At the moment, I’m happy with my game. I’ve worked very hard this year on getting fit. I had a couple of injuries last year and my main aim this year was to work on my game physically and mentally. I am seeing the benefits of it but I do know there’s a lot more in me. Hopefully, I can push on and get the best out of myself for Sunday. My goal was to nail down a starting spot on the team and then after that it was to be contributing with scores, both of which I have done okay so far. The main thing now is to get over the finish line and we want to lift that cup again and bring it back to The Town.”