Pressure, pressure, pressure.
The club season isn’t long over so the words are still ringing in my ears. It didn’t matter if it was a training session or a game; Bonner treated them both the same and that’s his call.
If you’ve shared the field with him as a team-mate or an opponent, you will know that he practiced what he preached. Pressure, pressure, pressure.
Us mere mortals take some things for granted on the field. Like if your opponent has all the time in the world and enough space to turn a bus, you might instinctively let them off with that ball, take a breather and think about the next one.
But Bonner never never gives up on any ball, never takes a breather, he stays going and his rallying call of ‘pressure, pressure, pressure’ drags you along with him, with the aim of winning it back.
I will never forget a point he scored for Lorrha where he dispossessed the same defender twice in the one play, steadied himself and then clipped over. It could have been nobody else.
Maher is renowned all around the country for this relentless work ethic - club man Ken Hogan once described it as an ‘unassailable appetite for torture’ - and that sums it up pretty well, but there is so much more to his game, as his Lorrha team-mates discovered over the last few years.
We won the intermediate and premier intermediate titles in Tipperary in 2022 and 2023 and Bonner was our main man, pulling the strings and generally causing havoc at full forward.
His hassling and hooking were one thing but his link-up play was just as good.
Earlier this year, my brother remarked to me that he doesn’t remember ever getting a bad pass off Bonner. Most of our team-mates would say the exact same thing.
It’s the subtle pop when you’re running off the shoulder. It’s only looking back that you realise you didn’t even have to break stride.
It’s the perfect pass that drops into your path when he knew before you even knew yourself you were free.
Holycross Ballycahill were four points up and cruising to victory against us in the group stages of the Tipperary senior championship this year when Bonner single-handedly turned the game on its head.
Congratulations to Patrick Maher on his 16 year career with Tipperary.
Everyone in Lorrha is very proud of his achievements, and we thank him for all of the magnificent memories. pic.twitter.com/5ZGf8WBN8a
— Lorrha GAA (@LorrhaGAA) October 7, 2024
First he split their defence in two with a pass that appeared to confirm what we long suspected, he actually has eyes on the back of his head.
Then, with the scores level and with time almost up, he somehow emerged from a crowd to win a long, high delivery, a certified ‘backs’ ball’ if ever you’ve seen one.
Out the field I was already celebrating what was coming… he duly found a yard and lashed low into the far corner, winning the game for us.
He didn’t necessarily shoot the lights out with points but that’s because he was always hunting for goals. He scored any number of them for Lorrha and his finishing was second to none.
We did a penalty shoot-out competition to round off a training session in recent weeks and Bonner nearly put a hole in the net with a perfectly placed rocket.
The rest of the team were speechless and he just jogged away expressionless - this is what he does.
He gave us many team-talks over the last few years and his message was invariably the same - always give the ball to the player in the best position. It’s the mantra of many of the best teams and Bonner always led by example on this front.
When people from other places ask me ‘what’s Bonner like,’ I’ll tell them he’s no different to what you see on the television or in Semple Stadium or in Croke Park. What you see is what you get.
Bonner first made it onto the Tipperary minor team in 2007, winning an All-Ireland title against Cork.
By 2010, he was only 21 but he had already racked up the full collection, backing up Tipperary’s famous win over Kilkenny with All-Ireland under-21 glory against Galway the following week.
He did a medal presentation for the club not long after, when he spoke about the 2010 final against Kilkenny. It was his first All-Ireland final and he didn’t get off to the best start when he let the first ball straight through his legs.
His message to the kids that night was that you stay going, keep battling.
That was what Bonner did that day, helping Tipp to a famous win.
His success for Tipperary has been a source of great pride for Lorrha, giving us great days out and many magnificent memories over 16 brilliant years.
Thurles Sarsfields club-man Michael Cahill was his team-mate for many of those great triumphs and it was only in last year’s county premier intermediate final against Thurles Sarsfields when something dawned on me. Cahill was picking Bonner up that day and the intensity of their duals for possession were like something I’d never seen.
Watching them go hammer-n-tongs in pursuit of the ball, you quickly realise that men like these are built differently from the rest.
Bonner is one of a kind and everyone in Lorrha is proud to call him one of our own.
He’s ran half marathons, he’s a brilliant golfer and you would often see him out cycling. He regularly jokes that the body is aching and that he’s one of the elder statesmen now, that may be true, but my only hope is that he has another couple of years hurling in him for Lorrha.
