Tipperary anxious for Maher

NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE/Final fallout: With the dust still settling on Monday's explosive National Hurling League final it is the losers, Tipperary, that must also endure the major side-effect.

Full back Philip Maher will tomorrow morning learn the full extent of the knee injury that ruled him out of the action after just 23 minutes, leaving manager Michael Doyle with yet another anxious wait before their championship start against Clare on Sunday week.

The nature of the one-point defeat by Kilkenny might not have left Doyle with too many headaches, but clearly the injury to Maher counts as one.

"He'll go for a scan on Thursday morning and until then we really won't know how serious a blow this might be," said Doyle. "We're keeping our fingers crossed, because we do have a few other injury problems and right now we're just trying to concentrate on getting everyone right for the championship."

No more than the injury that has ruled forward John Leahy out for the summer, Maher's problem happened in fairly harmless circumstances. Maher was also at his very best against Clare in the league meeting last Sunday week and his absence for the championship meeting would be unsettling.

Monday at least offered a more positive outlook on one of Doyle's other main injury concerns, team captain Brian O'Meara. He briefly appeared as a blood substitute having missed the last few weeks with two broken toes, and his return to full fitness is now imminent.

"Brian is definitely on his way back now and in fairness to him has only been with us for the last week. Mark O'Leary also had a slight drop in form for a while there, but it was certainly nothing to worry about and I fully expect he will be flying again in another week or two. So to have those two involved again is a big plus."

Doyle admits that even in defeat he has got much positive feedback about the game, which was instantly regarded as the most thrilling hurling league final in many years. Yet for him the most important sort of feedback came from the players, and the way they reacted afterwards.

"The most important thing was to see how disappointed the players were in the dressing-room. I mean they were really down in the dumps about it. It didn't matter at all that they had lost a great game. The fact that they had lost at all was a huge disappointment, and I suppose that's the sort of thing you want to see.

"But I'd be happy in the sense that I couldn't blame anyone for what happened on the day. We got 100 per cent out of all 18 or 19 players that went out there.

"And I knew going in there Kilkenny would be up for the game. The fact is they don't like losing to Tipperary any time of the year. And to be honest I thought that day down in Nowlan Park they weren't fully geared up for us."

If there was a turning point in Monday's game then Doyle points towards Kilkenny's third goal, an even contribution from Charlie Carter and DJ Carey.

"Once their third goal went in, I think that really set them going forward. If we had kept them scoreless for say another five minutes then we might just have knocked the wind out of them.

"But fair play to them for winning. And as I said I can have no real complaints on the day."