Anyone who’s ever done any form of public speaking will feel for Tipperary captain Brendan Maher.
The Borris-Ileigh clubman was tasked with the tough challenge of following “Bubbles” O’Dwyer’s memorable live TV interview to make the All-Ireland victory speech in celebration of Tipperary’s triumph.
Tipp comprehensively beat the Cats 2-29 to 2-20 in Croke Park on Sunday to claim their first All-Ireland since 2010. The half-decade wait made that win a little more special for the Premier County sparking a very cathartic reaction from the hurlers at the full-time whistle.
Maher admitted to RTE after the game that the excitement got the better of him, causing him to make a huge omission in his speech.
“In the moment you don’t know what to think, you’re a bit all over the place, and I forgot to mention Mick Ryan and the management in the speech and I had him first on the list.”
“I saw the names and said I’d come back to it, but I just forgot. You don’t know what you’re at! I’ve been getting a bit of stick off the lads since.”
This is how Tipperary's sublime victory over Kilkenny played out on Twitter https://t.co/ALg8KtH3GB
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 4, 2016
To make matters worse, Maher had actually written his speech well in advance of the game to ensure that he didn’t forget to mention anyone. He explained that this precaution was taken so that he had one less thing weighing on his mind heading into the big game.
“I was sitting down in my home house, doing a bit of work, and it came into my head. I saw there was a copy and a biro on the table so I just said, ‘right, I’ll jot down a few thank yous’ and it was out of my head then.”
“I probably learned that from the last time in 2014 and I had spoken to Eoin (Kelly) about it as well and he said he didn’t do it in 2011 and it corrupted his thoughts in the lead-up to it.”
“That’s natural no matter how focused you are coming in to it, that’s still going to come into your head. I didn’t have to think about it because I had it written down, but I’d be like that – I like to write things down.”
Despite taking all these measures, he still forgot to mention the number-one name on his list. However, something tells us Ryan didn’t mind too much. All-Ireland title triumphs aren’t exactly an everyday occurrence.
