It's been a week since news broke that Cathal Barrett had been dropped from the Tipperary hurling panel.
Rumours have since flown out of the traps of from people who were nowhere near the scene, nor had any reliable sources there, yet allowed themselves be convinced that a bust-up in training was what led to Barrett's departure.
A week later and most GAA bystanders now accept that such an event never took place, and that a backlash from prominent figures such as Nicky English put it all to bed.
Vicious rumours about Tipp players the last while,these are amateur players who gave hours of enjoyment to Hurling fans.Deserve respect #gaa
— Stephen Gleeson (@StephenGleeson_) May 31, 2017
Now Padraic Maher has reiterated English's point, saying that the squad found humour in just how far off the mark the gossip was.
Speaking to GAA.ie, Maher said:
At the end of the day, we're going to smile and let them all off, because there's no point in us losing energy on things that don't matter and things that didn't really happen.
We're just going out there to try to represent Tipperary as best as we can and people writing this stuff about you...at the end of the day lads have personal lives, families, jobs to go to every day.
What way is that affecting their lives? Look, it's not nice. People shouldn't have to deal with that in inter-county hurling or anywhere.
It does affect some players. The stuff that was being said was ridiculous. It's players' personal lives and families that are being hurt here, not their hurling.
When it comes to that, it's just ridiculous carry-on. Us as players, we're just moving forward, but the more you hear the more you wonder why are people even doing this.
Speaking to RTÉ at the launch of Pat The Baker's high-protein bread, Maher attributed the whole debacle to people looking for an excuse as to how they managed to lose.
When we lose a game, people expect there to be excuses as to why we lost, and not just that we were beaten by a better team on the day.
We've put it out of our heads because a lot of it is ridiculous stuff.
We're concentrating on the road ahead. We want to get back to what we do and that's playing hurling.Tipperary won't have another game until the qualifiers on 1st July which could potentially see them thrown up against Kerry who will be drawn against a Munster team having made the switch to Leinster this year.
See Also: More Woe For Tipp Hurlers As Cathal Barrett Dropped From Panel
