Full back is learning how to take strain

Midway through the second half of the Munster hurling semi-final and Clare are on the hunt for the score which may yet save their championship. Enda Flannery lofts in a searching ball and everyone expects it to fall over the bar. Instead, it bounces off the post and into the hands of Alan Markham. The goal is at his mercy and the 40,000 spectators in Pairc Ui Chaoimh hold their breath. But not for long. Back sweeps Tipperary's Philip Maher and executes a magical hook on the Clareman. Tipperary buttress their lead and the reporters have found their turning point.

Maher (20) seemed to learn at a glance what others must study. Youthful confidence is one thing, but to fill the Tipperary full-back role with such unassuming ability can mean only one thing - the guy is a natural.

By the end of the National League Tipperary had found the solution to one of the team's more pressing problems. Even more imposing than his solid 6ft 3in frame suggests, the man from Borrisoleigh is now one of the most established Tipperary players heading into tomorrow's meeting with Galway.

His story is short but convincing.

Maher was called into the Tipperary starting line-up at the start of the league and, although he played at left wing back in the opening game against Derry, he soon found his berth at full back, starting there in the second game against Wexford. By the time Tipperary had progressed to the league semi-final against Limerick Maher was being hailed as the best full back in the league.

"I think for such a tender age, he has progressed very well," says Tipperary selector Ken Hogan. "He suffered a bad shoulder injury last year and I think if it wasn't for that he would have been with us last summer as well. But I saw him play as a juvenile and knew immediately that he had all the potential to be an excellent full back.

"But of course he's a total natural. He also works very hard at his game and will always have some constructive criticism about the way he plays. And his two feet are firmly on the ground and I really don't think we have seen the best of him yet."

Already the tests have been severe, not least of all Waterford on May 28th, his championship debut. A baptism without much fire. The pace of Ken McGrath threatened to cause havoc, but before the end of the first half he was carried off with a severe ankle injury. Maher took the break he needed and none of the subsequent charges of the Waterford full forwards managed to unsettle him.

Against Clare, none of the forwards were able to make their usual impression and even the doubters now stepped aside.

"Coming up against us, I think there were still a lot of question marks over whether or not he was championship material," says Clare coach Louis Mulqueen. "He wasn't really tested against Waterford after McGrath left the game and it wasn't quite clear whether his form was coming or going.

"But our two-man full-forward line never threw him. We started with (Niall) Gilligan and (Eamonn) Taaffe, but they were well shut out. He caught and cleared a lot of ball and our men never phased him. I thought that if we moved him around a little then he may struggle, but he certainly held his own. And he pulled off that hook on Markham, which was as classic a defensive move as you're going to see. And it was heart-lifting stuff for the rest of his team."

The Munster final against Cork loomed, however, and Joe Deane lay in wait.

The damage could have been worse. Deane had a game which manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy described as "the best I've ever seen him play" and for the most part, Maher held his ground.

"Every game has been a new test for him," says Hogan, "and the important thing is that he has been improving.

"It is a big responsibility nowadays to man the square in the championship, but he has lived up to all his promise and I think he can improve further to be one of the best full backs in the country."

Tomorrow throws up a new test, and although he has faced Galway in the league the challenge remains unpredictable. "The Galway forwards are a bit like us in that you never know what they are going to throw at you," says Mulqueen. "I think he will have learned an awful lot from his experience with Joe Deane and I think most full backs in the country would have struggled to cope with Deane the way he played in the second half of that match. But I don't think that he's lacking in any sort of pace as some people might feel and I expect him to be on top of his game here again."