CANCER SCARE KEEPS THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE FOR McGRATH

IF anyone can appreciate the importance of time in all the various ways that it can change your world, it’s Noel McGrath.

This is his 11th season with Tipperary. A lifetime in terms of an inter-county career while last year’s championship season went up in smoke in 18 breathless seconds. Jake Morris hit the post at one end before Clare swept down-field to goal, and end Tipperary’s interest in the summer before they ever found their feet.

But more importantly, this April represents four years since he started his road to recovery and underwent surgery after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. He recovered to hurl for Tipp later than summer. They lost out to Galway but the image of Anthony Cunningham beating on McGrath’s chest having returned to play was seared in the minds of many. It’s an experience that McGrath (below) admits left its mark.

“It’s something that will never leave you,” he said. “It’s just something that you had to deal with in your life, you have to deal with different things at different stages and that was just something that came my way. I was lucky enough to come out the other side. It happened so it will always be there, but it happened so you get on with doing what you can to the best of your ability afterwards.”

Bar the time he was out through his illness, he hasn’t been unavailable for a championship match through injury and reckons he’s missed only a handful of League games. And with Liam Sheedy back, he’s hoping they can recapture the sort of form that saw them halt the Kilkenny ‘Drive for Five’.

“Everyone knows about him as a manager from his time here before when he started in ’08, I suppose he got Tipp back to the levels they’ve been competing at over the last few years. Everyone is delighted to have himself, Tommy and Darragh back. Everyone is rowing in behind and pushing on, so it’s creating a great atmosphere around the place.”

McGrath is part of the set-up with his younger brothers, John and Brian. Lauded underage talents, it might have been reasonably expected that they would join Noel in the Tipp squad.

“You just don’t know, luck has a lot to do with making it at inter-county level,” Noel counters. “There’s loads of fellas you’d say probably should have played with Tipp, or could have played with this county or that county, but timing and injuries, getting in at the right time, putting in a few good performances, all those things count for a lot.

“There was always a chance that the two of them were going to come in but it’s no different than anyone else, you have to work hard. Just because you’re good at 16, 17, 18, even up to 20, doesn’t guarantee anything. You always have to keep working and learning.”

Tipperary take on Wexford on Sunday coming off the back of a win and a loss so far in the League.

“We’re coming from a position where we didn’t get out of the Munster group last year, so we have a lot to work on to get our game up to the level that will be acceptable in the Championship.”