Noel McGrath reassured he can still cut it at highest level
Noel McGrath at St. Vincent’s GAA club in Dublin at Centra’s launch of the 2026 Senior Hurling Championship and the Centra GAA Sharpshooter Competition. Winners will receive a €1,000 prize for their local GAA club plus the opportunity for their team to play at the 2026 Hurling for Cancer Research Charity Match later this year.
By John Harrington
Tipperary’s 0-36 to 0-21 defeat to Limerick in Round 4 of the Allianz Hurling League was a dark evening for the Premier County, but it did come with a silver lining.
Noel McGrath proved he still has a lot to contribute to the panel at the age of 35 as he scored six points from play, which was two more than the rest of his team-mates combined.
It’s hard to imagine that someone of McGrath's quality would ever doubt he still has what it takes to compete at the highest level, but he admits he took a lot of reassurance from his own performance in that match, even if disappointment with the team performance was his over-riding emotion.
“No, it is reassuring, it is, because no matter what age I've been over the years, there's times when things aren't going well for you and you're asking yourself, 'am I still able to do this or am I still at the level?'” says McGrath.
“Am I able to compete with the lads that are a few years younger? It is nice to be able to do that. That comes from training as well. Then when it comes to a match day, and you have a decent game, and you feel that you've done yourself justice, it does give you that confidence that you're still able to compete, that you're still at a decent level.
“So, yeah, it does (give reassurance), there's no point in saying it doesn't. Obviously, with such a poor team performance, then you're questioning how you could have helped it to be better as well?
“But, yeah, you're always trying to test yourself to see if you are still at a good level. I felt good that night and even in some of the games that I came on in, I felt good and the body felt good moving around. So that's always a help.”
Noel McGrath of Tipperary during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A match between Tipperary and Limerick at FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
The match against Limerick was the only one of Tipperary’s League campaign which McGrath started.
Considering how well he played in it, is he at all frustrated he wasn’t given a place in the first XV more often?
“I was named to start against Waterford the first day before the match was pushed back to the next week, so that would have been a game that I would have started,” he says.
“I came on for 20-25 minutes against Kilkenny. They were the two games that were after that. As I said last year, the few times I've been asked this, you put your trust in the management to pick whatever team they want to pick on any given day.
“There's 36 or 37 of us in there and we all want to play. I'm absolutely no different, I want to play 70 minutes every week when there’s a match. You just have to go with whatever they want to do. I'm not knocking down doors to wonder why.
“You go in training every night and you put your hand up to train. If you're training well and playing well in training, it's out of your hands after that and the management decide whether you're in or not. That's just the way it is.
“I think all sports around the world are the exact same. I suppose in your own head, if you're happy with how you're preparing, how you're training, that you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and you feel that you're performing well, well, after that, you can be content with yourself.
“Yeah, you want to play and I always will want to play. Whatever happens over the next few weeks, you have to be ready at all times.
“You could be named to start or you could be asked to come on or whatever it is that you are. If you're sulking because you haven't been playing, then you're in a bad mind frame going into a game.
“If you are asked to come in, then you're not preparing right and you're not doing yourself justice and you're not doing the team justice. You just have to be ready every time you're asked to go on the field.
“Whether that's for 70 minutes or 10 minutes, or whatever it is, you just have to be ready. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, if I can put myself in the minds of the management and see whatever they want to do, then after that, I'll go at that from there.”
Noel McGrath of Tipperary and his son Sam lift the Liam MacCarthy cup after victory in the 2026 GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Cork and Tipperary at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
Munster Hurling Championship matches between Tipperary and Cork rarely need any extra seasoning to make them a tasty proposition, but Sunday’s first round clash was given a little extra spice by Donal Óg Cusack’s recent comment that Tipperary teams “can rise very fast, but they also fall faster than anybody else.”
McGrath has been playing for 18 years for Tipperary, winning four All-Ireland titles, so he’s entitled to be more annoyed by that comment than anyone else in the current set-up, but it’s water off a duck’s back for the Loughmore-Castliney clubman.
“People have their opinions and that's why I suppose they're on different shows or in different medias just to give their opinion. Whatever their opinion is, it is. At this stage in my career I'm not going to lose sleep over people saying one thing or another.
“It is what it is and that's just the way it goes. It's great I suppose that it creates talking points and gets people talking about the games and what's coming up over the next few weeks. It doesn't bother me too much at all.
“You can make as much or as little of different comments as you want, or different things that are said. I suppose if you're not motivated yourself and want to do well yourself, I suppose looking for things outside you might be only clutching at straws.
“You prepare yourself as best you can and some people if they want to use things that people say, fair play work away and if that helps drive you well that's good too.
“For me myself I suppose you just prepare yourself as best you can and get yourself ready and I suppose you have confidence in your own ability to get yourself ready for games.
“If you're waiting for someone to say something about you individually or as a team, it might never come so you just have to have yourself ready. That's just the way I look at it.”
