Waterford footballer James McGrath.
By Cian O'Connell
James McGrath worked in the Middle East for two years and Gaelic Football still mattered deeply during that spell.
McGrath might have been off the inter-county beat with Waterford briefly, but he stayed in shape with the Arabin Celts team winning at the GAA World Games in 2015.
“Yeah, we won it," McGrath recalls. I have a GAA World Cup medal. "They marketed it as the Middle East. We played the USA even though it was New York that came over, but they were called the USA. We were the [Middle East/> ‘B’ team. We did the trials and all that like and that’s the way it worked out. We flew to Abu Dhabi four weekends in a row for all these trials."
How was that funded by the players? “For the Middle East games, you’re funding around 60% of it," McGrath says. "You would have had to fund a lot of it. But yeah the World Games, that was the first year of it, 2015."
It was an interesting stint in Saudi Arabia for McGrath, who acknowledges how hard the current Waterford panel are working under Tom McGlinchey.
“Yeah absolutely, but every guy we have is committed," McGrath states ahead of the Munster Senior Football Championship opener against Tipperary at Semple Stadium.
"That’s the way I’d put it like. It’s not as if they’re, we’ll say, coming in just to fulfil a place on the panel or just coming in to say that they can play for Waterford because, as you said, they’re not going around telling people that they’re playing for Waterford football.
"So they’re coming in and they’re giving it everything they have to play on an inter-county team. The recognition may be not there like your Dublin and Kerry and all the guys at the top, but definitely every fella is committed, yeah."
Waterford manager Tom McGlinchey.
That is why Waterford's failure to close the deal against Cork down south last year hurt so much.
"We should have won that game," McGrath adds. "It’s very difficult to say how we didn’t win the game. I don’t think we physically could have done any more on the day. We left everything out there. We fulfilled the game plan exactly as to how we wanted to play. I think the majority of that game was played on our own terms, but a defeat is a defeat.
"Sleepless nights after it? No, because my opinion is that if you took every single defeat, especially in a Waterford jersey, like that, you wouldn’t go back playing the next year and you wouldn’t be prepared to give the commitment that you need to give to be part of the Championship panel.
"That’s the way I’d look at that Cork game. Look, it was a huge opportunity that we’d ultimately say that we missed. Who’s to say that we won’t get that opportunity again?"
Earning a Championship win remains McGrath's ambition in a Waterford jersey. “Yeah, absolutely," McGrath replies. "We’re going out in Championship and in qualifier games that we potentially could and should have won.
"We’re going out to win a Championship game, there’s no doubt about it. That funnels back to the commitment of players.
"A number of years and no Championship win, but players coming back, committing year after year to get it and even if you are successful this year and get a Championship win, it’ll just drive fellas on to the next level.
"There’s always steps in any Championship, whether you’re at the top, winning Munster, then progressing to win an All-Ireland, that’s your step. Our step is to win promotion from Division Four and to ultimately win a Championship game."
