McGrath talks up Munster title ambition

GAELIC GAMES:IT'S NO great secret that Tipperary's loss to Cork in the Munster championship quarter-final last year ultimately inspired them to bounce back and win the All-Ireland outright – although Noel McGrath still reckons the Munster title is worth fighting for.

“Everyone growing up in Tipp, all you want to do is win Munster, then win All-Irelands,” says McGrath. “So we will be going out to do our best on Sunday. We will not be looking any further than that. It is a nice championship to win so hopefully we will get a good start on Sunday.

“And you want to go straight through the championship and win as many games as you can. We’ll be trying to do that this year, and as well as Cork, or any other team, go straight through the championship.”

The question of what happened last year – when Cork beat them 3-15 to 0-14 – is not easily answered, although McGrath suggests Tipperary may be better primed this time. “Looking back maybe we weren’t ready at the time, but I thought we were prepared as well as we could. It’s easy to look back and say these things happen, just on the day it didn’t work out for us.

“We’re certainly prepared as well as we could be for Sunday, and done what we think is right to be ready for it. Hopefully everything will run right on the day and we will be able to put in a good performance. We all know Brendan Maher is out. Shane McGrath trained on Tuesday so everybody is feeling well and ready to go.”

Tipperary will announce their team after training this evening, but in the meantime McGrath isn’t being fooled by the apparent inexperience of the Cork team, which includes three debutants in Luke O’Farrell, William Egan and Stephen McDonnell – with Egan given the task of marking McGrath.

“These boys have played with Cork all the way along. We know the challenge that they are going to throw at us. They will always have their experienced guys, big men, there, that are all able for the big day. It will be no different and we will just have to be ready for what they throw at us.”

The lessons of last year weren’t just about losing to Cork, and it was only after beating Galway that Tipperary truly believed they could win the All-Ireland: “We came from nowhere, against Galway, came from the dead to win it. Games like that get you going again.

“It is hard to reach those high levels again, but every player has to focus on it and hopefully we can. When you know what it feels like to lose you don’t want it happening, you want to be the total opposite. I suppose it helped us in the All-Ireland, but we just went out on the day to put in as good a performance as we could.”

CORK (SH v Tipperary): D Óg Cusack; S McDonnell, E Cadogan, S O’Neill; J Gardiner, W Egan, B Murphy; L McLoughlin, P Cronin; B O’Connor, C McCarthy, N McCarthy; P Horgan, P O’Sullivan, L O’Farrell.

ANTRIM (SH v Wexford): C O’Connell; C McGuinness, C Donnelly, K Molloy; A Graffin, M Herron, C Herron; P Shiels, B McFall, S McRory, K Stewart, N McManus; C McCann, D Hamill, E McCloskey.

OFFALY (SH v Dublin): J Dempsey; M Verney, D Kenny, S Egan; D Hayden, R Hanniffy, D Morkan; C Mahon, D Molloy; B Carroll, G Healion, C Egan; S Dooley, J Bergin, D Currams.

MAYO (SF v London): R Hennelly; T Cunniffe, A Feeney, G Cafferkey; R Feeney, D Vaughan, C Barrett; J Kilcullen, J Gibbons; A Campbell, A Moran, A Dillon; T Howley, A Freeman, J Doherty.