John McGrath
John McGrath has been voted this week’s GAA.ie Hurler of the Week.
The Tipperary sharpshooter earned 3,823 votes GAA’s Official Twitter (@officialgaa), Facebook, and Instagram pages with Waterford’s Kevin Moran second and Clare’s Aaron Cunningham third.
GAA.ie Hurler of the Week
1: John McGrath – 3823 votes (43 per cent)
2: Kevin Moran – 3211 votes (36 per cent)
3: Aaron Cunningham – 1867 votes (21 per cent)
John McGrath is a hurling artist and he painted another pretty picture in Tipp’s All-Ireland SHC Quarter-Final win over Clare on Saturday.
The stylish corner-forward scored six points from play, and most of them were beauties hit under pressure and from difficult angles.
He also won plenty of hard-ball and linked well with his team-mates, particularly his brother Noel with who he seems to have a telepathic relationship.
In an All-Ireland Quarter-Final dominated by packed defences, Kevin Moran’s haul of 1-3 from play for Waterford made him the most influential player on the pitch by some margin.
The three points he scored were all inspirational efforts, but it was the goal he struck just before half-time that was the really decisive moment of the match.
He showed good presence of mind to finish it in the manner he did, directing a first-time ground-stroke past the advancing Mark Fanning rather than making the mistake of trying to get the ball into his hand.
**Aaron Cunningham **wouldn’t have been playing in Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC Quarter-Final had Aron Shanagher been fit, but he more than justified his call-up.
He scored two goals in the space of a first-half minute, both of them fine finishes, and was very unlucky not to score a third in the second-half.
Had Clare managed to get more ball into him then we might have had a different result, because the Shannon man had Tipperary full-back Tomas Hamill on toast all afternoon.
Players of the Week are decided based on votes cast by followers of @officialgaa on Twitter, on the Official GAA Facebook Page and on the Official GAA Instagram page.
