Liam McGrath joins stellar list of multiple winning captains

By Shane Brophy

Liam McGrath will go down as one of the great captains. In 2011, he skippered the Tipperary minor footballers to their incredible All-Ireland success and now joins the select group of captains that have lifted the Dan Breen Cup on behalf of the County Senior Hurling Championship winners Loughmore/Castleiney for a second time.

“I never even realised during the year but it came up during the week and the mother said it and that’s when it dawned on me,” McGrath admitted in joining a group that includes Jim Lanigan, John Maher, Mickey ‘The Rattler’ Byrne, Tony Wall, Jimmy Doyle & Padraic Maher (Thurles Sarsfields), Sean Kenny (Borris-Ileigh), Francis Maher (Holycross/Ballycahill), Jack Bergin (Moycarkey/Borris) and Tommy Dunne & Michael Bevans (Toomevara).

“It is a very special feeling, captaining that team inside, management, parish, everything, a special bunch.

“It is a huge honour to go up them steps twice and is something I will cherish,” he added.

McGrath was an injury doubt coming into the game but he said when it comes to games like these, you do whatever it takes to play a part and this is the mantra of the Loughmore/Castleiney squad.

“When you get to finals, it is so hard to get there. You could say we have been training for this for the last two years so when you get to finals you just have to give everything and have no regrets,” McGrath added, who was also selected as the official man of the match for his 1-3 contribution from play.

“Even if the result didn’t go our way today, I don’t think anyone would have had any regrets, everyone gave it everything. Nenagh, to be fair, gave it everything too. It was probably a great final to watch, very competitive and was an enjoyable game too.

“The bodies were sore after last weekend but when you know you have to go to the well one more time, you are going to do it.”

McGrath also paid tribute to the panel effort, twenty players playing a part on the day with all five subs used, half of who contributed on the scoresheet.

“That’s a serious team performance,” McGrath said when he learned of that statistic.

“We have a serious panel, there are always five subs coming on, they could be anyone too, it’s not the same five lads all the time.

“There is great competition there. If you want to do back to back that is what you need, you need lads driving on, driving on for positions, and that was there this year.

“There wasn’t much talk of doing back to back this week, just perform and have no regrets, if we perform we knew would be good enough to win.”

The veteran attacker admitted there was a little concern when Nenagh erased the six point deficit going into the final twenty minutes but Loughmore’s composure and experience came to the fore then.

“It’s how you react too, everyone of us reacted positively to it. You back everyone up,” he said.

After a hectic schedule of eleven games in twelve weeks, Loughmore/Castleiney will have three weeks to prepare before they tog out again in the semi-final of the Munster Club Championship, away to Eire Og of Ennis whom they have played in senior football in recent years.

Loughmore are Munster champions previously from 2007 but in their three more recent experiences, they haven’t had much luck, both on and off the field, and McGrath admits it is something they’ll go after.

“These opportunities don’t come around every year,” he said.

“We’ll be looking to drive on again this year. We have had a few hard luck stories the last few times we were there but that is sport, these things happen, and you have to be able to adjust. We are probably a stronger panel this year than we were last year too.

“We have time to get the niggles and bodies right and hopefully give Munster a right good rattle and who knows where it might take us.”