KEITH DUGGAN talks to Tipperary's Shane McGrath who is looking forward to another tilt at all-conquering Kilkenny at Thurles tomorrow
BACK TO the future, then, for Shane McGrath. Another league final for Tipperary, another fiery championship date with Cork looming and Kilkenny still the team to beat.
This is all familiar ground for Tipperary; broadly speaking, they have returned to a place that seemed so encouraging this time last year. But it feels different. Last year, McGrath represented the most carefree and exciting elements of Tipperary hurling.
He was, as Nicky English noted on these pages, “a natural athlete” and, with James Woodlock, formed a young and dynamic midfield partnership.
This year, McGrath, although only 25, finds himself talking about some of “the younger lads’” that Liam Sheedy has given game-time through the course of this league. Modern Gaelic games have become fast in every sense.
The transition from rising star to core player has become mercilessly brief and because of the standard McGrath set for himself, he has evolved into one of the key figures in Liam Sheedy’s Tipperary team.
This year’s league, has, he admits, been a bumpy ride, from the early-season setback of being stricken with mumps, to the hellish afternoon in Nowlan Park, to the stormy encounter against Galway that resulted in a suspension – he becomes eligible for tomorrow’s league final only by the skin of this teeth.
McGrath drew the short straw after a video examination of the set-to in Salthill that resulted in several hurlers spilling over the advertising hoarding. It was a surprising interruption to what had been a league match of normal intensity and it probably looked worse than it was. McGrath would not have been an obvious suspect in an investigation into rows but upon review, he was hit with four weeks. He was fortunate his suspension ends before the final.
“I was so lucky that it fell that way because I would have felt terrible missing the final,” he admits now. “I thought it was all kind of handbag stuff. But what can you do? It was much ado about nothing as far as I was concerned so thank God I didn’t miss a league final over it . . . I have just been concentrating on getting my place back for the league final, to be honest. Some of the boys who have come in there have been doing great.”
In between hurling, McGrath has been doing teaching placement in Limerick, keeping his head down and admitting that his pupils have not been too hard on him. Last year, the Tipperary panel left for a week-long training programme in Portugal early on the morning after they had defeated Galway in a smashing league final. This year, they visited Spain ahead of the final against Kilkenny. The training was rigorous and enjoyable, but McGrath also found it enjoyable just to be away from the general sense of gloom that has pervaded the country since this Tipperary prepared for last year’s league final. The realities of trying to prepare like professionals but live as amateur sportsmen still bite.
“The way it is nowadays, people are working every hour they can. And it was great to get away from all the negativity. I suppose, that is around the place. To go out to a place where nobody knows you and to get to know each other over the week has great benefits.
“It was enjoyable. And to train together three times a day is, when you think about it in terms of the work you get done, probably the equivalent of a month here.
“It worked out perfect for me because I was hit with the mumps at the start of the year and missed out on the early training with the boys in January and February so this gave me a chance to catch up and I hope it will stand to us.”
The GAA have responded to the general economic crisis by lowering the prices for tomorrow’s league showdown. It was a sensible move. But some tend to forget that GAA stars are beset by the exact same concerns.
“Exactly,” McGrath says. “It is hard to escape from. But it is true as well that the GAA is great for that; it will always be there no matter what, whether you are a player or a supporter.”
Few people are expecting tomorrow’s league final to be a repeat of the 2004 Tipp-Kilkenny 10-goal classic captured in the memorable image of John Carroll swinging his hurley like a lasso above his head. The Cats’ performances this year have been such that GAA headquarters might have expected a coroner’s verdict rather than a referee’s report to land with the post on Monday morning.
Recent comments by Tipperary legend Babs Keating – to the effect that Tipperary could not expect to live with Kilkenny – were typically blunt and provocative in their assessment.
McGrath is not concerned with opinions, but concedes that on the evidence of the league so far, denying that there is a gap between Kilkenny and all other teams is pointless.
“To be honest, going on the year so far, there is a very big gap between Kilkenny and any other team. You know, we thought we were going to get a result in Nowlan Park, went down there and were blown out of the water. Cork the same. What do you do?
“You know, you don’t go training four and five nights a week and drive home an hour and a half afterwards just to be the nearest rival or the second-placed team in the country. Everyone has ambitions and our goal is still to lift the Liam McCarthy.
“We know we have a bit to go before we are up there with Kilkenny. But, hopefully, we can put in a good performance in this league final. And the right result, then, would be a bonus.”
There was nothing vindictive in Kilkenny’s treatment of Tipperary; they simply hit a rich vein of form in the beginning and they followed it for the duration of the game. In fact, they slackened after half-time, such was the breathtaking quality of their display in the opening period.
As the half-time score between Kilkenny and Tipp was called out in GAA grounds across the country, it felt significant. It was the latest indication that Kilkenny were soaring onwards and upwards. For the Tipperary players, those half-time minutes – the Nowlan Park cognoscenti gave the black and amber men a standing ovation – were a blur.
“I was very down,” McGrath recalls. “I don’t think I ever felt as down in a game for a long time. I hold my hand up. It was one of my worst performances ever in a blue and gold jersey. It was just one of those days. Kilkenny are an awesome team. Any team that wins three All-Irelands in a row in the modern era has to be something special.
“We are going to have it all to do to get a result off these guys. They have set the standard and you can kind of gauge how you are going by how you perform against them. We went to that match in the full expectation of getting a good result like we had done the year before. And we just got blown out of the water. We didn’t know what had happened to us at half-time. And I have looked back on the game once or twice and Kilkenny were just awesome.
“Everything they touched was a score, you know. The lads regrouped at half-time and fair play to the new lads – Shane Hennessy and Darragh Ryan, they came in and lifted things a small bit. Our best hurler that day was probably the youngest guy on the field, Noel McGrath. It just shows that if you are good enough you are old enough. If you are losing by that kind of score in a challenge match, you will be down. But those lads gave a good account of themselves in the second half, that was something to take from the game.”
Regardless of what happens in the league final, Tipp have earned the right to be regarded as Kilkenny’s most likely challengers on recent evidence. Their pale showing against Waterford in last year’s semi-final gave the management and squad plenty of food for thought and McGrath is concerned about the team’s Croke Park record in recent years.
“It seems to have become a tough place for us to get a result in over the past four or five years. It seems as if we are always nearly there. It is hard to know why we under-performed against Waterford, to know why or what we did differently.
“Maybe it was the occasion. Maybe it is the stadium. I really don’t know. It is something that we need to address soon.”
Once again, the gap between Tipperary’s last All-Ireland win and the present is stretching. McGrath has awe-filled memories about the 2001 homecoming and the All-Ireland victories of 1989 and 1991 he knows through anecdote and old VCR copies. But the sense of Tipperary heritage and expectation has not dimmed.
“Growing up in Tipperary, there is always pressure there. We know that there is a huge desire in the county for the team to be back in All-Ireland finals. But look, there is no one that wants it more than the lads that are out there training for it every night.
“And, of course, the Monday night in 2001 is something I will always remember – seeing them coming into Thurles in the open top bus. And just the feeling that was around the place, it is something that will live with you forever. And you meet lads from ’89 and ’91.
“So we know what it is about and we are really focused as well. Last year our aim was to get to and win an All-Ireland. That is probably the aim of the top five or six counties. We feel we have options that we didn’t have last year now and getting to this final and playing Kilkenny in Thurles is a great preparation for the championship but there is a sense of occasion about it as well.”
