“No, a couple of the lads went out to find it but couldn’t, I don’t know if it was picked up or went in — it probably went into the stand so somebody might have it.

“I’m not too bothered.”

Well, the prospect of All-Ireland club final will distract a man like that.

“I won’t say I was happy with (winning) the county final, when you get that you kind of start looking forward again, but it was always, ‘Winning a county final with Borris would be unbelievable’.

“You only had a week to turn around then against Glen Rovers and it just seems like a bit of a wave since then.

“It’s been one thing after another — not really overthinking it too much, just enjoying the games. Christmas was a strange one — training on the 23rd, on St Stephen’s morning. That never happens around here, you wouldn't even do that with an intercounty squad.

“It was a challenge and it was tough for everyone to be so quiet, to have that quiet Christmas when you'd maybe like to be able to socialise and are even just relaxing a bit mentally - you’re mentally switched on the whole time.

“That's the hard part, you’re thinking about the next training session, the games, so we haven't had a chance to switch off yet. We'll do that after Sunday.”

It’s a stiff challenge. Ballyhale are no strangers to the All-Ireland club final.

We've been faced with challenges the whole year and we're not going to approach it differently to the other games. We realise we’ll be underdogs, it's a mammoth challenge but we’re not going to change the mindset, we’ll approach it the same way we approached all our games.

“We've been labelled underdogs all the time but we don't have the mindset of underdogs. It’s a simple approach, in the sense that we would go out and work as hard as we can for each other, and kind of do ourselves justice on the page, and, we have a lot of freedom to do that.

“You can see that in the way that we play, there's no pressure on us, there's no-one that's afraid to make mistakes - we make mistakes, we do things that we shouldn't do, but we get on with it and that's what has gotten us to where we are now, so it’s a similar approach for Sunday week.

“Obviously we realise we’re coming up against an unbelievable team but our mindset will be the same.”

Maher points out that the Ballyhale threat isn’t confined to marquee names like TJ Reid and Colin Fennelly: “Their six forwards are lethal, three are intercounty and then you have guys that are probably up to that standard, so that's the challenge.

“But as I said, it’s not that we don't fear anyone but we don't fear playing these games. We go out with the same mindset that we've adopted for every game and try and play as best we can.

“We realise that we’re up against a savage team but we're not going to shy away from it. We'll give them as good a rattle as we can. And if we can overcome it it's going to be the dream come true.

“I know it sounds like a cliche but that is the approach we have. We try and prepare as best we can and we go out and it’s ‘let’s have a go’ and see what happens.”

Still, Maher has been so central to Borris’s progress that he has to expect them to have a specific plan to deal with him.

“I don’t know. The decision has to be made whether to put me on TJ or whether he’ll maybe take me where I don't want to be, things that could happen. We haven't even discussed this, and as I said, we have more than one player to watch.

We'd like to think they have more than one player to watch as well, that we have enough of threats to cause them problems without just thinking about me.

“It's something we’ll decide, what we want to do, but it may change after a few minutes, and I think that's the beauty of what we have - we have lads willing to adapt and we're not set on one team. If something's not working we’ll change and have a go at it and we’re happy to have a go at it.

“That’s one thing Johnny's (Kelly, manager) been very good at as well when he's on the line, he's very clued-in to adapting and making the sort of changes that might have a big impact on the game, so we agree on something to start and see how it goes.”

Given his own experience of All-Ireland finals, is he helping younger players prepare for the big day?

“I can remember my first All-Ireland and the older guys talking, ‘this is what's going to happen today and this actually happens, which is a bit unusual, so don't be too shocked when it happens’.

“Little things. There are always going to be questions, like what’s it like to run out, is the President there - because I actually don't even know what happens on the day of the club All-Ireland so we’ll try to make sure we have all that information but not overthink it. To focus on the right things, which is obviously on our performance.

“The team’s mindset is so strong that the game could be out there (outside) and it’d be all the one to us. It's obviously a huge occasion and we’re delighted to represent Borris in Croke Park, but I think we've a mature enough group, even though there's a lot of young guys there, that we’ll realise this is what’s important.”

He’s been in Dublin for the club finals before. He just didn’t make it to the stadium . . .

“I remember actually being up for it in 2017 and we were supposed to go but we stayed in the pub. We played St Jude’s in a challenge and went into Chaplin’s for food - a Borris man, Murty McGrath, is running it - but it started raining, we didn’t fancy the walk, so we decided we’d stay where we were.”

Different agenda tomorrow.