THE COMMON perception is that if Tipperary blow it again on Sunday Kilkenny will have too much even for Limerick hostility in the All-Ireland final. Everything is primed for Tipperary to step into the gap seemingly vacated by ageing Cork and Waterford panels.
Tipp are expected to become the county to rival Kilkenny as kings of hurling over the coming seasons.
There are, as yet, unconvincing suggestions that Dublin and Galway will rise; Cork will surely come again but the revolution looks to be entrusted to the once dominant hurling stronghold.
Two recent gatherings of minor All-Irelands have given them Noel McGrath, Brendan Maher and Páraic Maher with others soon to follow. The presence of talented young men like Shane McGrath in addition to more senior figures like Eoin Kelly, Larry Corbett and John O’Brien – who were part of the 2001 All-Ireland success under Nicky English – suggests enough balance, at the very least, to put Limerick to bed on Sunday.
For Shane McGrath it means denying former LIT housemate Gavin O’Mahony a clear look at the posts. O’Mahony was denied a Fitzgibbon Cup start by the presence of Conor O’Mahony and Kieran Murphy from Cork but exploded on the championship scene against Dublin.
“A lot of people who knew Gavin, knew that the performance he gave the last day was in him for a long time, it never came out,” said McGrath. “Then he started popping over sideline balls and frees from his own 45 like a fella who was there for the last nine or 10 years.”
But more than anything the Munster champions need to start winning in Croke Park. Last year’s failure to beat Waterford has to be where the buck stops.
“Yeah, I think we know what it takes but winning big games in Croke Park is another thing. We haven’t been able to win them for the last few years. But there are four or five lads who have come in this year and I couldn’t speak highly enough of them.
“They have added a whole new thing to our set-up. They are coming in off the back of winning one or two All-Ireland minors. They spoke the other night, and they are like lads who are there nine or 10 years.
“They said, ‘we have no qualms about going up to Croke Park. We’ve won All-Irelands in Croke Park. We haven’t lost in Croke Park’. To hear that from them, even the lads who were there in 2001 said if a young lad can talk like that, it will drive us all on.
“And it has. It has focused for us what we want to be in Croke Park on the big days.”
At 24, McGrath is already keenly aware of the finite time of a modern hurling career.
“Eoin, Larry and John O’Brien – 2001 was their first year there and they thought (contesting All-Irelands) it was going to happen every year. I remember talking to Niall Gilligan once about 1997. The final was one of the first matches he played and he thought it was going to be par for the course, ‘I’ll be back here every year’.
“But the years go by so quickly, and the way the game is gone you’re probably only going to get seven or eight years in it now. It’s gone so fast; it’s so demanding on your life from a social aspect, you are not seeing family and friends.
“The whole physical challenge of training takes a lot out of the body. But it’s really important for Tipp to get back into an All-Ireland final. It’s important for any hurling county, but Tipperary is regarded as the home of hurling.
“There was a lot of hurt there last year that we didn’t get to an All-Ireland final. We felt we let ourselves down, but we are after letting a lot of people down at home as well. We don’t want to do that again. It’s a terrible feeling, that half an hour in a dressingroom afterwards. I don’t think anyone said a word.”
McGrath is asked about the weight of history – how three All-Irelands in 38 years has made Tipperary a second-tier hurling county behind Cork and Kilkenny.
“Absolutely, you’re dead right. I know for a fact we’re a better team this year than last year, and a lot of that goes down to what we’ve learned. The management team have learned a lot, we’ve learned a lot.
“Who knows what’s going to happen in the next four or five years. I might be meeting these lads at a funeral or whatever, looking back, and we might be saying ‘if only we’d won that match’.
“Ifs and buts, but ifs and buts win nothing for you; you want to be meeting these lads at reunions of an All-Ireland-winning team . . . It’s days like Sunday that you have to put down your mark, if you want to do things like that.
“I think we have the confidence now. I’m sure also the supporters are sick of losing. I remember last year coming out from Thurles with Conor O’Mahony and this lad flagged us down, called us over – ‘Johnny Logan had the right song for ye’, he says – ‘What’s Another Year!’ And we were thinking ‘Is he right?’ Is that us, what’s another year? Johnny Logan is a great singer and everything but I don’t ever want anyone to say that to me again!”
It’s suggested to him that our legendary Eurovision export had another hit called, Hold Me Now. “If we can win the All-Ireland people can sing anything they like.” They probably will too.
