Fine wine McGrath 'getting better' at 34 says teammate as Tipp gear up for Laois

Irish Daily Mirror

a day ago

Jake Morris says that his evergreen Tipperary teammate Noel McGrath is 'getting better' as Liam Cahill's side get back on the All-Ireland trail this weekend.
Having broken Brendan Cummins's Tipperary Championship appearances record in the second round of the Munster round robin against Cork, McGrath is in line to play his 77th Championship game for the Premier in tomorrow's All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final against Laois in Portlaoise.
With plenty of mileage on the clock, particularly with numerous draining club campaigns with Loughmore-Castleiney in both codes behind him, the 34-year-old is not quite an automatic starter these days with Cahill opting to use him as an impact sub in three of their four Championship games, his start in the crucial third round win over Clare being the exception.
As the last survivor from Tipperary's All-Ireland winning side of 2010, McGrath is by far their most experienced player and it shows both on and off the pitch, says Morris.
He said: 'Noel is worth so much to us inside there. So good with all the younger lads. So good off the field. He'll give you his last bit of energy.
'He's just such a good lad to have around the dressing room and then you can see what he does on the field.
'He's like a fine wine. He's getting better. Really, really important player for us and he's going to be again this weekend for us.
'He's been such a good hurler for Tipperary over the years and he just continues to give and give and give.'
McGrath came through a generation of underage sides that won two All-Ireland minor titles and an under-21 crown and with Tipp enjoying a similar level of success in recent years, as Cummins's under-20s recently went all the way to go with minor titles won in 2022 and last year, it suggests that another successful period at senior level is in the offing having struggled since the 2019 All-Ireland.
'Look, we've great hurlers coming through,' Morris acknowledged. 'It's hard to say will we reap the rewards from it. It's just about really being conscious and working hard and putting your best foot forward all the time.
'I think we do have the right structures in place at the minute to allow us to maybe let some of them young fellas flourish in the next few years but there's no shortage of hurlers in Tipperary and we just have to go one step at a time and stay doing what we're doing.'
An All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway beckons in eight days' time but Morris insisted that Tipp's focus is trained solely on Laois, who were well beaten by Kildare in last Sunday's Joe McDonagh Cup final.
The losing McDonagh Cup finalists have struggled at this stage, with Laois losing by 12 points to Wexford last year while Tipperary beat Offaly by a whopping 32 points the year before.
Morris added: 'We can't look past Laois now and that's me being totally honest with you. We've seen the way hurling has gone nowadays, if you take your eye off the ball you get done. So we're just preparing for this weekend, but training has been going well.
'We've had a couple of weeks to reflect and learn from the Munster Championship, take away some areas that we need to improve on and I suppose just look at a bit of video and see what's going well for us and what areas we can go after for this weekend.
'But it's been going well, we've had a couple of niggles, we've had to get lads right after the Munster Championship. But we're in good health.'