McGrath slams unfairness of extra-time hurt
TIPPERARY’S Noel McGrath believes both All-Ireland semi-finals should have gone to a replay at the end of normal time, rather than putting players through an additional 20 minutes of gruelling Championship fare.
The Premier County forward pointed out that it makes little sense for the provincial finals to go straight to a replay while the AllIreland semi-finals were settled on the day.
‘I think the GAA are probably trying to cut down on matches and get them finished on the day,’ McGrath stated.
‘They have their reasons for that but, from a player’s point of view, to get recovered and get ready to go again, a replay would be my preferred option.
‘If you take the provincial final, that would go straight to a replay and the team that loses still has a chance coming through the backdoor, whereas an All-Ireland semifinal is the last-chance saloon.
‘And if we are going to get games like we did last weekend, wouldn’t a replay be a great spectacle for people?’
While the nation builds itself into a lather of excitement over what transpired at Croke Park last weekend, the two-time All-Ireland winner admitted it has been hard for Tipp to look on from the outside.
‘It is disappointing. Nobody wants to be gone from the Championship that early. It can be tough, watching the games because you want to be involved at the business end.’
McGrath says Tipperary are still trying to work out where things went wrong this summer.
‘It is hard to know. I think the last few weeks have shown that there are eight or nine teams that are now able to compete at a very high level.
‘You have seen that in the standard of hurling. You can look at small things that happened on each of the days. We had opportunities in different matches that we didn’t take.
‘It was just one of those years when things never kicked off for us,’ he added.
McGrath feels the experience of watching on from the sidelines has sharpened his sense of hunger for next season and, while he can’t wait for January to come around again, he accepts hurling has become a lot more competitive in the past few years. When he first broke into the Tipperary senior team at the turn of the decade, Kilkenny were out in front with only a couple of rivals.
However, McGrath reckons there are now seven or eight teams who believe they can win the All-Ireland title and are capable of actually backing up their claims.
‘There’s definitely more genuine contenders than there was five or six years ago.
‘There are a number of teams that could beat each other on any given day, depending on how they perform.
‘We have seen that with all the Championship games this year, most of them have been very tight and only decided in the last five or 10 minutes.
‘It is very, very competitive and it is good for hurling, the way that the Championship has gone this year and how exciting the matches have been.
‘Long may it continue. Hopefully, it will continue to get even better,’ he said.
McGrath acknowledges that Kilkenny being brought back to the chasing pack has something to do with a lot of those teams reaching the standards they have.
This year’s Championship is summed up by the quality of the three teams remaining and how hard it is to decide which of the counties are favourites.
‘The standard has risen a lot and there are more teams coming up to that standard. Kilkenny were out in front when I started and it was up to everyone else to catch up to them.
‘Galway are the standard-bearers now as All-Ireland champions but Kilkenny drew with them and Clare drew with them, so it shows how tight all the matches have been.
‘Trying to guess who is going to win the All-Ireland with just three teams left is still nearly impossible,’ added McGrath.
‘It’s tough watching the games from the outside’
‘We have seen that eight or nine teams can now compete’