Copyright belfastlive
It's hard to imagine life being much better for Noel McGrath right now. With his fourth All-Ireland this year, he became the first Tipperary hurler to reach that mark since 1965. There are only two Tipp men still with us that have more. Unlike his previous All-Irelands, he was able to share this one with his two-year-old son, Sam. Earlier this month, his wife Aisling gave birth to Sam’s sister, Aoibhín, who generously gifted her brother a cement-mixer. “When he was born, bringing him to Croke Park was something I always thought would be a lovely thing to do and hoped for but we hadn’t been getting to Croke Park so you were wondering if you would ever be able to do it,” he says. “But the way the whole year turned out and to have him there both days in Croke Park was great. I suppose he won’t remember being out on the field or in the dressing room but myself and Aisling will. We have the photos to show him in the years to come and they’re great memories.” On Sunday, McGrath will bid for a 10th senior county medal with Loughmore-Castleiney, his fifth in hurling, as they joust with Éire Óg Nenagh for the Dan Breen Cup. The weekend started with McGrath named as the Gaelic Writers’ Association’s 2025 Hurling Personality of the Year, supported by Dalata Hotel Group. It’s not all milk and honey, however, as, having won another double last year, Loughmore relinquished their football title last Saturday when losing a semi-final to Kilsheelan-Kilcash in dramatic fashion. But, all told, a decade on from being diagnosed with testicular cancer, McGrath can have few complaints. He was back in action for Tipperary before the 2015 Championship was out and has won three All-Irelands since, as well as a fistful of county medals. He’s grateful for what he has in a sporting and family context, but that episode is still a reference point for him and something that he ponders, to some extent, on a daily basis. “Ah, sure I do, there's no point in saying I don't,” he admits. “There's so many stories around that you hear of and probably more that you don't even hear of, of people that are in tough situations. “I'm 10 years out now, thank God and I do, like, sure, I'd have to be [grateful], there's no point in saying any different. “I got into a hard situation that nobody wants to be in, but I'm lucky enough that it wasn't long-term, it was relatively short-term in a lot of ways compared to other people and I got well looked after and I was lucky that it was caught on time and I was able to get back to living a relatively, not a relatively, I got back to living a normal life and back to doing all the things I wanted to do. “There’s probably not a day that goes by that I don't think of it in some way or another, but I'm just happy to be able to think about it and to be at this side of it now where I can enjoy myself and be grateful for it.” Hard times in sporting terms fuel McGrath too. The club lost two county finals in 2020, the hurling loss to Kiladangan after extra time particularly hard to take, but he’s won four county medals since. “We lost by such small margins, but the hurling, where we lost it, it was a devastating defeat, so yeah, they stick with you and I suppose that's maybe what drives you to go back and to try again.” In a Tipperary context, he was stockpiling the setbacks from 2019 to this year, when they didn’t play a single Championship game in Croke Park, before romping to an All-Ireland that nobody could have seen coming. “I’ve been lucky enough that in my first probably 10 or 12 years with Tipp we were competitive nearly every year. We weren’t always winning but we were in a good position every year and you always thought you had a right chance and then them few years there where we just weren't at the races. There's no other way of saying it and you're wondering how is this ever going to turn? “But them days, when you look back after this year, are days that you learn a lot about yourself and about the team and lads that stuck at it and really grinded it out and stayed driving for the next two or three years when things weren't going well and this year then you got your just reward for that.” He turns 35 in December, but the indications are that he’ll be back with Tipp for an 18th season in 2026. “Look, all going well, I'd love to give it another rattle again, but at the moment we'll see how things play out, but the plan will be to go again and see what happens, but we'll fully decide come November, December time when things settle down a bit more.”
