John McGrath on taking chance: 'You just get some breaks and you kick on a bit from there'
The three-time All-Ireland winner is in line for a second All-Star after scoring 7-16, including 2-2 in Sunday's final, and was ever present for all eight of the county's SHC games.
However, he started just one National League game and came off the bench three times. He didn't appear in the last couple of Division 1 outings and at that stage his excellent championship campaign couldn't have been envisaged.
'I played very little in the National League this year,' said McGrath. 'I came on a couple of times and started one game maybe. They took a chance with me in some ways in the first round of championship.
'Since then, I probably didn't look back. You just get some breaks maybe on that day and you kick on a bit from there. It's small margins at this level. Very small margins, I suppose.'
The best club player in the county for several years, McGrath's performances for Loughmore-Castleiney have been outstanding but bringing it to inter-county level following his ankle issues required patience from player and management.
'I couldn't put the last few years all down to bad injury, I suppose. The form wasn't great for a while before that as well. But no, I think maybe even just the break that time, the break from playing, just got the body to recover a bit again.
'And it took a while, maybe after, to really get going. But no, some year, just thrilled to be back stuck in the middle of it. It's unreal to be just toughing it out there with lads and testing yourself. And that's what everyone wants to do.'
Not that he would have spoken about it too loudly but McGrath, who turns 31 next week, was fuelled by the idea of proving people wrong.
'There has to be some part of it probably that hurts you a little bit maybe. Or that you find frustrating or hard when you're used to playing and competing and being relatively successful.
'And then to maybe not being in the team at times like it is, it's tough. Any good sportsman that you have a bit about yourself, you do. You want to prove people wrong. You want to get back and show people what you're able to do.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
6 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Kerry ratings: Gavin White plays captain's role for victors
Kerry are All-Ireland champions once more after a dominant performance against Donegal. Here is how we rated their performances. Shane Ryan - 7 Kept a clean sheet on All-Ireland final day and got 16 of his 24 kick-outs away. A decent return, even if he did fail to convert a potential 0-03 from a two-point free and a 45. He'd only scored 0-04 all season so Sean O'Shea was probably the better option for those kicks, particularly the two-point attempt which was at a crucial stage. Ryan put a kick-out over the sideline late on too though performed his basic duties well. Paul Murphy - 7.5 Marked Oisin Gallen who scored three points in the first 22 minutes and, in the 25th minute, passed straight to Gallen who fed Michael Murphy for a score. But Murphy kept Gallen scoreless after that and the Donegal forward was eventually replaced. The former captain conceded a free for receiving a kick-out inside the arc in the 45th minute. Probably the sensible option to avoid a goal at that stage. Jason Foley - 7 Went head to head with Michael Murphy. Fouled him twice in the second-half for frees that Murphy converted. Also fouled Gallen for a free that Murphy nailed. Kept Murphy to two points from play overall and will have been content with his efforts. Dylan Casey - 6.5 Bottled up and overcarried for a 21st minute free that Murphy should have converted. That was a bad start and Casey struggled at times to contain Conor O'Donnell who sniped four points from play. He marked Paddy McBrearty for a spell when the Donegal captain came on. Brian Ó Beaglaoich - 7 Coughed up a handy free with a touch on the ground in the 34th minute. He and Kerry got away with that one. Winced after kicking a wide in the third quarter also. Lent to a Trojan defensive effort overall, the best Donegal have come up against all season. Mike Breen - 7 Spent plenty of time in the Donegal half in the first quarter when Kerry were applying the heat and laying down the terms of engagement with their relentless onslaught. Kicked one two-point effort wide but got his hands on plenty of ball and moved it on efficiently. Eventually replaced in the 65th minute by Tadhg Morley. Gavin White - 9 Inspirational stuff from the Kingdom skipper. Ostensibly a wing-back, the Killarney man tormented Donegal's defence with his powerful running down the left wing. Ciaran Moore must have felt like he was in reverse gear at times, trying to cover that side against him. White scored 0-03 and was still setting up scores late on, feeding Paudie Clifford for a 61st minute point. Sean O'Brien - 7.5 Any nerves that O'Brien must have been feeling in just his ninth Championship game for Kerry were overcome early on. He powered into the game, putting in a brilliant block on Finbarr Roarty in the 16th minute and helping to provide a powerful midfield platform. Weighed in with two points and repaid Jack O'Connor's faith in him this season. Mark O'Shea - 7.5 The other half of Kerry's midfield engine. Lasted the duration and did plenty to ensure that Michael Langan wasn't the colossus for Donegal that he can be on his day. Joe O'Connor - 8 Another big performance from a player firmly in the running for the Footballer of the Year award. Two catches in the first half ended up in points for Gavin White and Paudie Clifford. Ran relentlessly at the Donegal defence, particularly in that first half and got through a ton of work. A big part of the reason why Kerry won the middle third battle. Capped a stunning effort with his late goal. Sean O'Shea - 8 The first player to finish an All-Ireland football final by booting the ball out of play. O'Shea deserved the honour after a strong display which yielded 0-06, taking his seasonal tally to 1-50. Nailed two two-point frees, a free and a score from play. Assisted Dylan Geaney for a point as well. Graham O'Sullivan - 7 Dropped a point attempt short late on. It looked like a jaded kick after a huge effort and he was taken off moments later. Jack O'Connor wasn't complaining about O'Sullivan's effort as he put in a huge shift around the middle. David Clifford - 9 A brilliant ending to a landmark campaign for Kerry's generational attacking talent. His nine-point haul took him to 8-62 for the season, just shy of 10 points per game. That's some shooting across nine matches but Clifford consistently delivers. His back-to-back two pointers in the first-half put Kerry in a winning position and provided a vital cushion. His solo point off his right foot in the second half after burning Brendan McCole again was the pick of the scores. Paudie Clifford - 8.5 Had Peadar Mogan for company for the most part. Played a stormer and delivered a sumptuous dinked kick pass to brother David for a 37th minute point. There were so many positive, creative moments like that throughout and Paudie struck three points too. The only blots on his copybook were a couple of two-point attempts that flew wide. Dylan Geaney - 8 We wondered if one Geaney, Dylan, might be forsaken for another, Paul, when the team was initially announced. But Dylan more than repaid his manager's faith and was probably unlucky to be taken off after 54 minutes. He scored three points from play and did well with a run down the right to create a Paudie Clifford score in the 43rd minute. Substitutes Diarmuid O'Connor - 7.5 Walked straight into a war zone as Donegal were turning the screw in the middle third, midway through the second half. Won an important free from a Ryan kick-out when under the cosh in the 54th minute, leading to a Gavin White point. Won another big free two minutes later. Killian Spillane - 7 The experienced attacker fed Joe O'Connor for Kerry's goal and can be happy with this contribution over the 15 minutes or so that he was on the field. Evan Looney - 7 An assured presence in the closing minutes when he handled lots of ball, gobbling up the break after one dangerous Garryowen in towards Michael Murphy. Retained possession well as Kerry played down the clock. Micheal Burns - 6
Irish Examiner
6 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Jim McGuinness: 'We were chasing our tails'
No ifs or buts or maybes from Jim McGuiness after Donegal's comprehensive All-Ireland final loss to Kerry. Out-thought and outplayed on the day, the Ulster side never got to grips with the puzzle posed them by Jack O'Connor's side and ended up on the wrong end of a 10-point defeat that absolutely no-one thought likely beforehand. The consensus was that this one was too hard to call. So… what happened? 'Ah, listen, it's a bit early for all of that, I suppose, and a wee bit raw. We didn't perform, Kerry did perform, that's the bottom line. They started very early in the game and they got a foothold in the game. 'I thought we responded quite well in the first-half on our attack, we were good, we were clinical, but I think they might have scored in their first six attacks, so we were struggling to deal with them in that period.' McGuinness wasn't asked about David Clifford, his first answer just gravitated inexorably toward the Fossa man who existed on the margins of the game for long periods while being the absolute fulcrum in so many ways at the same time. He finished with 0-9, six of his points coming from two-pointers. 'They went for a lot of two's and they hit a lot of them as well and that was big. David Clifford coming on to those balls on a loop… We'd done a lot of work on him and we did a lot of work in terms of managing him. 'I thought Brendan [McCole] did actually quite well on him for periods, but obviously it does take more than one person to try and close down David and he kicked some brilliant two's.' The easy take is that Donegal were beaten by that early Kerry flurry. McGuinness didn't see it in those neat terms. Yes, it didn't help to fall eight points adrift inside the first quarter, but the thing about mistakes and problems is that they shouldn't be compounded. Donegal compounded their issues at the big with more going forward. 'We made too many mistakes. We did things that we don't normally do, we made decisions that we don't normally do, and we just had too many turnovers. That's the bottom line. We had too many turnovers, and some of them were kind of clutch enough moments. 'So we were chasing our tails. There were a couple of moments before half time, a five-point game, then we lose possession, we give possession away, and then it ends up a seven-point game. That was a tough one to take. 'Had we been able to work that and got a score, we would have probably ended up getting four down at half-time. It might have been a very different dressing-room at that stage, very different dynamic in terms of going out for the second-half. But that was fairly significant.'
Irish Examiner
6 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Healy-Rae to make complaint against garda over 'shoving' incident on All-Ireland final day
Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae has said he will make a complaint against a garda after an alleged shoving incident ahead of the All-Ireland football final. The incident took place on Sunday afternoon in Dublin City, where Kerry and Donegal fans were gathered ahead of the All-Ireland football final in Croke Park. Multiple videos, circulating on social media, shows Mr Healy-Rae walking through a large crowd of Kerry supporters near Brannigans pub. In the videos, Mr Healy-Rae raises his arms as he walks through the crowd to cheers from Kerry supporters, before a garda appears to shove him away. Mr Healy-Rae turns to talk with the garda, before walking away while the crowd boos. Mr Healy Rae said: I don't know what happened. I was walking here, minding my own business and the next thing this garda shoved me and he shouldered me. The TD also said that the garda 'effed and blinded' at him during the alleged incident. Asked if he planned on making a complaint against the garda, Mr Healy-Rae sad: 'I will, I will.' 'He needs to be brought to account for it,' Mr Healy-Rae said. However, Mr Healy-Rae said he has 'fierce respect' for the gardaí and they have a 'tough job'. 'It was just a very, very isolated incident.' He added the garda involved must have 'some spite for me'. In a statement, An Garda Síochána said it 'does not comment on unverified social media content'. 'Any person who wishes to report the conduct of a member of An Garda Síochána can do so by contacting Fiosrú,' the spokesperson added.
