It had been so long since they had reason to update it, the paintwork on the famous Thurles Sarsfields mural had become rather patchy. So, no sooner had Ronan Maher’s portrait been hastily added alongside his eight clubmates as an All-Ireland winning captain last week than it was temporarily removed as part of a bigger redecorating process. “They're redoing it all up now,” he says. “The whole clubhouse has actually been painted, and they're repainting all the signs, so it'll be really cool to be walking in training now and see it.” The first All-Ireland winning captain from anywhere came from Thurles Sarsfields, with Jim Stapleton leading Tipperary to victory in the inaugural Championship of 1887. Yet, Stapleton only took over as captain for the final victory over Galway. The skipper up to then had been Denis Maher, who stepped down from the role due to a fallout over travelling expenses for the final. Denis was Ronan’s great-grandfather. Tom Semple, after whom the stadium in Thurles is named, captained Tipp to the 1906 and ‘08 All-Irelands, while another Sars man, John Joe Callanan, became the first man from the county to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1930. Clubmate Jimmy Lanigan was the second in 1937, with John Maher, Ronan’s granduncle, the third in 1945. Tony Wall maintained the club tradition in 1958 and it was further embellished by Jimmy Doyle (1962 and ‘65) and Michael Murphy (1964). So, Ronan Maher became the ninth different Thurles Sarsfields man to captain Tipperary to All-Ireland honours last month, and the first in 60 years. But, in an era where players drone on about the process and having eyes only for the next game, Maher had a wider gaze. Indeed, a doctored version of the wall was the screensaver on his phone. “I had a blank picture beside the rest of the captains up there, and it was just an arrow pointing to it, and I suppose I had a few words underneath, and what my visualisation was, and that was basically it. That was one of Cathal's great skills.” That’s Cathal Sheridan, the former Munster rugby player and now sports psychologist, who was also part of Kerry’s All-Ireland winning football set up this year. “When I met him in ‘24, he asked me what my visualisation was,” Maher explains. “It was to walk up to Hogan Stand, to lift Liam MacCarthy, but also to have my picture up on the Thurles Sarsfields wall as well, with the rest of the legends, and to walk into the clubhouse with Liam MacCarthy with all my family and friends there, and that was exactly what happened on the Monday night. “The centre was packed out and everybody from Thurles, outside of Thurles, was there, and it was just a dream come true. But I had it set as my screensaver, yeah, for the two years. It's hard to believe that it's actually come to life now.” And yet, there’s a certain poignancy for him in that his brother, Pádraic, who captained Tipp before him and was forced into retirement in 2022, didn’t make the wall before him. “I always thought that Pádraic should have been going up on it in ‘17 and ‘18, and that hits home as well, and it's one thing you think about, and I suppose you think you're so lucky to be going up there. He was one of our best leaders ever to wear a Tipp jersey, and in ‘17 and ‘18, we thought we'd be getting him up on the wall, but unfortunately we didn't and things didn't go according to the plan, so that just makes it more special I suppose, and the achievement that it is. “It'll take a while before it hits home, but I'm born and raised in Thurles and I'll be there for the rest of my life. It'll be nice to look at down the line.” And, for all that, Maher feared that manager Liam Cahill would relieve him of the captaincy after the 2024 season was such a washout. Instead, he doubled down on his faith in him last winter. “He just said, ‘You're going to lift silverware this year’ and he shook my hand and he said, ‘Go do it’ and that was basically the conversation. It does stir a few emotions in you inside, but I was just honoured to get the job again.” It was coming on six years since Tipp had even played a Championship game at Croke Park, but Maher didn’t doubt Cahill’s words. “No, I believed him, and I suppose we were a good bit through a tough pre-season there, and I know the group of individuals and team we have, there is class there, and especially with the younger lads coming now as well, there's good lads coming through. “I think in Tipperary we just have to build on it now, we can't be just happy and go back down again next year and not reach the same heights,” he adds, as Tipp look to retain the title for the first time since 1965 when, of course, a Thurles Sars man was captain. As for the screensaver, what is it now? “I had to change back to the girlfriend there!”