'Carefree' young players are driving the Tipperary hurling team, says Noel McGrath

“The feeling of reaching an All-Ireland final never gets old, it’s as good as ever,” Tipperary’s Noel McGrath told RTÉ after his team had beaten Kilkenny in Sunday's semi-final.

“The game ebbed and flowed, it was very like the 2019 semi-final when we were a man down and dug in. And Oisín (O’Donoghue’s) goal was unbelievable, what a finish. It was very messy but bodies just got there, which meant Kilkenny couldn’t get the ball away. It was some pick-up by Jake (Morris), he got it out to Oisín, and it was some finish.

“And Robert Doyle’s save from Paddy Deegan near the end, that’s game over, time is up.

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“When Darragh McCarthy was sent off, it just happens so quickly you don’t get a chance to think about it, it’s just a case of getting to the next ball.

“It probably suited us that they went short on their puckouts, because we were able to squeeze up on it, and they were hitting it long and our backs were winning it and winning the breaks from it. There was some unbelievable defending at the end”.

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He said that the younger players on the team had brought “a freshness. When new lads come in, it isn’t that they don’t care but they have a carefree attitude, when I came in I had that as well and when you grow older it gets different.

“The young lads come in and train, they just want to play hurling, some nights they’re out hitting balls before I’m even at training, they’re unreal with the time and effort that they and everyone puts into it.

“Some of the performances today were like those from lads that have been up here loads of times. Some of them have never even been in Croke Park, let alone played up here.

“We have four, five and six players who played today who didn’t play last year, and that has pushed us on. It’s like anything, once you get a few results the confidence just builds, and there’s a pep in your step going into training and going to matches. It gives you that confidence and energy that maybe we were only a few percent off last year, and it’s working so far.

“We still have no trophy on the table, we’re in an All-Ireland final, you just have to go in and talk about it and then get ready for a few weeks’ time.

“The experience in such a tight match will stand to the group. Even coming in before the match, the crowds on the streets, that’s something new for a lot of lads. That experience will help and it will be even bigger in a few weeks time (in the final), a sea of blue and gold and a sea of red.

“That’s why you play. We’re sitting at home for the last five or six years watching those days, and to be involved in them is exactly where we want to be”.

As regards coming into the game as a substitute, he says that everyone wants to play.

“There are 38 lads on our panel who want to play and I’m no different to that. But you do what you’re asked to do, and if Liam (Cahill) wants me for 70 minutes or for 10 minutes, I’ll be ready to do that.

“I’m delighted to be able to give whatever I can whenever I can, and coming in to play with the boys, when they have have a lot of the hardship done, you come in and the play is a bit different, you come in and do what you have to do.

“I’m 34 years of age, to be out here in Croke Park is unbelievable. I love every minute of it and I’ll stay doing it as long as I’m wanted and as long as I’m able and enjoying it”.

He said that after a few tough years, his younger brother John is “flying it.
“He’s had an unbelievable championship so far. Everyone in Tipp knows the class that he has and everyone outside of Tipp is realising it again”.