Noel McGrath a model of quiet efficiency as he perfects the role of Premier link man

Four minutes into the second half of the drawn game, Noel McGrath wheeled away out of a scrum on the Kilkenny 45. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gearóid Ryan had stolen inside Cillian Buckley and was shuttling towards right corner-forward with only Brian Hogan for cover.

McGrath swivelled on his heel a whipped a stick pass in Ryan’s direction but he overseasoned the broth and it ended up dribbling out over the endline.

After a game of sing-song melody, highlighting such a humdrum passage of play probably seems wilfully obtuse. Like walking around the Louvre picking out smudges on the walls with a magnifying glass. But the motivation here isn’t to tsk-tsk. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The clock showed 39:08 as that ball rolled out. From there until the end of the game, Noel McGrath didn't once misplace a pass and give away possession for Tipperary. His only aberration for the rest of the day was to nearly-but-not-quite catch a Darren Gleeson puck-out 10 minutes later. Though it was heavily punished – Michael Fennelly mopped up the breaking ball and started a move that ended with Richie Power's second goal – it would be nit-picking in the extreme to put a black mark next to McGrath's name for it.

Richie Hogan was everyone’s man of the match. Of the Tipp players that made the conversation, Cathal Barrett, Bubbles O’Dwyer, Séamie Callanan and Bonner Maher all had their boosters and supporters. And yet quietly, underneath the surface, Noel McGrath had played best supporting actor without too many really noticing it.

Final pass

McGrath got on the ball 24 times and from those possessions he mined an involvement in 10 Tipperary scores.

He flashed four over the bar himself and had the final pass for James Woodlock’s early point and O’Dwyer’s equaliser at the end.

He was fouled for the Callanan free that closed out the first half and put Bonner Maher into the clear in front of the Hill where Brian Hogan fouled him to give Callanan some more low-hanging fruit.

Even when he wasn’t part of the play, he was affecting it. Shane McGrath scored a point on the run after 20 minutes for which the whole right side of the Kilkenny defence appeared on first sight to open up into a welcoming corridor.

It was only when you saw it back from behind the goal that the reason for all the space became clear – Noel McGrath was standing on the 13-metre line waving his hands, daring Paul Murphy to stick or twist. Nothing scarier than a phantom menace.

“He’s probably the most elusive player currently playing the game,” says former Limerick and Dublin wing-forward Maurice O’Brien. “You see him on the ball at wing-forward and in the very next play, he seems to be in full-forward again. He probably spends no more than a minute or two in either position. He drifts in and drifts out and even if he never got on the ball, it’s worth it for the doubt he puts in defenders’ minds because he’s so elusive.

“He’s a link man, always available for a pass from the half-back line. He seems always to be available at the left-half-forward, left-midfield area. And he’s available in a kind of a loose enough role, especially against Kilkenny because they don’t like to push up too far to mark their men. So he can find that pocket of space.”

Maybe the most remarkable aspect of his afternoon the last day was the fact Kilkenny weren't able to lay a finger on him. He wasn't bottled up in a tackle once across the 70 minutes, nor was he blocked any time he went to strike. The only time he was hooked, it was the opposition corner-forward Eoin Larkin who did it, chasing back to get his stick in as McGrath dwelt on the ball around his own 65.

Although he was the last of Tipp’s front six to get his hands on the ball in the drawn game, it’s arguable he was the one who had the greatest effect on it.

He was the starting point for three of their goal chances in the second half – his double one-two with Lar Corbett from a sideline cut that put Callanan in, his flick to Kieran Bergin that was shifted through Bonner Maher onto Ryan, his catch and pass that put Corbett in the clear for the second Tipp penalty.

Pecking order

Yet McGrath’s role within that Tipp attack is such that he’s effectively become the sport’s most overqualified water-carrier.

He’s available this morning at 5/1 for an All Star, ranked joint 10th along with Michael Fennelly and Eoin Larkin on the list of hurlers likely to fill the six forward positions.

Callanan, O’Dwyer, Maher and Corbett are all comfortably higher up in the pecking order.

And given his role within the Tipp set-up, there doesn’t appear to be much he can do this evening to change that.

“He can get glossed over a bit now,” says O’Brien.

“Maybe the sheer fact that himself and Bubbles are similar enough players and they both wear green helmets, people could be coming out of games going, ‘Well, Noel was a bit quiet, wasn’t he?’

"Bubbles is getting the limelight. Lar Corbett, Seamie Callanan and Bonner are all having people talking about them in glowing terms. Noel is probably coming in ranked fifth in terms of Tipp forwards that people are talking about. And yet he is so important to them and he played so well the last day."

The elusiveness O’Brien talks about is probably best illustrated by the variance in the type of points he scored three weeks ago.

Though Callanan and O’Dwyer scored five each from play, many of them were of a piece. O’Dwyer’s were for the most part instinctive, catch and shoot on sight from distance. Callanan’s came most often when he looped out and around from full-forward, shooting on the run as JJ Delaney tried to force him away from goal.

Loose ball

But McGrath’s scores came in all makes and models. His first was from midfield, on the turn off his right after Bergin fed him as Kilkenny wailed for a free on Eoin Larkin.

His second was off his left on the run as he got on the end of a Shane McGrath clearance. For his third, he blocked Jackie Tyrrell’s attempt at a handpass on the Kilkenny 45 and snatched up the loose ball. The last one came as he supported the play from behind.

"Time and time again he comes from deep as play develops," notes O'Brien. "Like with his last point in the drawn game, he was coming onto the ball from midfield and was there for James Woodlock when he needed to pass it out after he ran into traffic.

“Noel got it, took the pass out and put it over the bar from 55 metres. That’s the danger with him now – if he’s not linking it in to someone inside, he’s able to just whip it over the bar from distance.”

Not many would have predicted that the 2009 Young Hurler of the Year would find his niche so faithfully giving up headlines and highlights for the greater good.

Yet here he is, ego long suppressed, the living embodiment of O’Shea’s vision of what makes a hurling attack.

“It’s admirable the way he’s just gone about his business and taken on that role.

“I guess it’s a tribute to Eamon O’Shea’s management as well that he can get a guy that’s so used to being a leading light and get him to buy into the fact that his primary role is as a link man.

“It says a lot of the management that it works so well.”

Perhaps so but it says plenty of the player too.