ALWAYS THE MASTER
McGrath is back to his influential best as Tipperary’s playmakerin chief
SEEING the crooked finger so early was a new experience, but Noel McGrath and Tipperary had reached their seasonal rock bottom. Eight points down against Galway at Pearse Stadium in March, McGrath paid the price for an uncharacteristically poor first half with an early shower.
Tipp were on course for a third successive Allianz Hurling League defeat and fresh material was being provided for another Monday evening post-mortem on local radio.
McGrath and Tipperary had reached a major crossroads but they embarked on the right path. And three successive victories since then – including wins over last year’s All-Ireland finalists Cork and Clare – set up a League final meeting with Kilkenny in Thurles this afternoon.
‘Things could have went the total opposite way for us after that [Galway] but lads kept plugging away and working away,’ says McGrath.
‘We got the luck against Dublin and got in with the three points at the end and I suppose if things had been different and had they got another point or two, we would have been in the relegation final a week later. It is the small things, the margins that people talk about.
‘Since then we have kicked on; the game against Cork was a serious game of hurling, another day we came out of top and there were some serious performances. It’s hard to say whether it is a turning point yet, it’s early in the season, but we’re delighted to be in the League final.’
It’s all a far cry from that fateful afternoon in Salthill, when journalists waiting outside the dressing-room door for reaction were privy to what was going on inside. The walls were stripped and nobody was immune. But McGrath didn’t have to be told. He knew himself his performance wasn’t up to scratch and he was duly hauled off halfway through.
‘Every day you don’t have a good day you have to look at yourself,’ reflects McGrath.
‘Even if you play well, or think you played well, you have to improve for the next day because the team you’re playing the next day is trying to improve also.
‘Galway was a day that didn’t go well for me and I was disappointed but I put the head down and started working hard again and I think that is the way it has to be.
‘There is no point in sulking or crying about been taken off. These things happen in sport. I accepted that and had no problem moving on and, thankfully, I got back into the team again.’
McGrath’s response was emphatic as he clipped over three points against Dublin, two more against Cork and another in the victory over Clare. And when he made way with 19 minutes to go against the Banner men, it was because of injury, with ice applied to a shoulder knock.
‘Yeah, it was just a bit of bruising on it,’ he confirms. ‘Just damaged ligaments but they’re not as bad as they felt at the time.’
HE RETURNED to club duty with Loughmore-Castleiney last weekend and was one of the first names pencilled in on Eamon O’Shea’s teamsheet, released yesterday afternoon. Because when McGrath is in the mood, he’s one of the country’s finest playmakers. Operating around the middle third of the field, McGrath’s a maker and taker of scores.
Loose ball in McGrath’s paw invariably results in a point or a precise pass to a better-placed teammate.
When John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer shot the lights out in the quarter-final victory over Cork, helping himself to 1-7, McGrath was creator-in-chief. Away from hurling, 23-year-old McGrath is based in Dublin, studying in UCD and eyeing a career as a secondary school teacher.
Living close to college, the commute to training in Thurles is 90 minutes each way. The car fills up as the journey progresses, with Dublin-based John O’Brien and Paddy Murphy linking up at various pick-up points. Kieran Bergin was a regular traveller, too, but the DIT student is now on work placement.
‘We’re usually leaving Thurles between nine and half nine. So we’re back up around 11, or before it, most nights,’ McGrath explains.
Manchester United is a big topic of conversation in the car, McGrath reveals.
He’s a United fan himself and can see the difference of opinion that split the fanbase when David Moyes was sacked as Old Trafford boss. He’s asked if Manchester United fans remind him of Tipp supporters, with a tendency to become somewhat disillusioned when things go wrong.
McGrath responds: ‘It’s like any sports team – whether things are going good or bad, people are going to have an opinion. That’s just sport. It’s just life.’
Dublin provides a release, too, for McGrath. Far from the madding crowd, to an extent, especially when fortunes of the Tipperary senior hurling team dominate local conversation.
That day in Galway didn’t go well but there is no point sulking about being taken off
‘When you’re away i n Dublin you’re doing your own thing up there,’ McGrath says. ‘When you’re in College, in UCD, hurling is far from a lot of people’s minds, it’s grand to get away from it. “But when you get back down and you’re in hurling mode coming into Thurles and it’s coming into summer then it’s nice to be back around home and getting a feel for the Championship.; Last year, McGrath was a key member of the Loughmore-Castleiney football and hurling teams that created history in Tipperary, as the club claimed its first senior championship double.
A six-week break, when it eventually came, gave McGrath time to reflect and plan ahead.
‘In fairness to Eamon, he gave me from the middle of November, when Loughmore ended, to the first of January when we were back training with Tipp,’ he says.
‘After six weeks you’d be looking forward to going again.
‘You’re just so used to going all the time