The buzz is the same for Noel

For every player that commits to an inter-county team, this week is what the hard slog is all for.

This past winter has been one of the wettest in living memory which made it feel longer but on the cusp of the championship, as the evenings get longer and the pitches start to get quicker, the adrenaline begins to rise.

Noel McGrath knows all about it, going into his eighteenth championship campaign and for the spiritual leader of the Tipperary senior hurling panel, the buzz is the same.

“It's hard to believe that it's so close to the Championship now, but it's great too,” he said.

“This is why you start training, this is why you want to get yourself right, to get to this time of year.

“For me, at my stage now, I find the fact that it's an earlier start…when it comes around to the 1st of January, like, it makes it that bit easier because you know it's not that far away.

“You have two or three months there, it's tough. This year especially, for everybody, the weather has been poor a lot of the time, but you still know that it's not that far around the corner to the Championship. Now here we are, everybody's looking forward to it, feeling good and enjoying it, that's the main thing. Can't wait to get started.”

The four-time All-Ireland senior medal winner has seen and done it all before, plenty of the good times, and plenty of the bad, something former Cork star Donal Og Cusack referenced on RTE recently that nobody rises or falls faster than Tipp.

“People have their opinions and that's why I suppose they're on different shows or in different media,” Noel said.

“You can use it and you can tell yourself they can (make a difference) but how do you measure it either because there's been plenty of times when something has been said about a team and they don't win and they don't perform and then they (whoever said the comment) are proven right. Then another time someone says something and the team wins and proves them wrong.

“For myself, you just prepare yourself as best you can and get yourself ready and you have confidence in your own ability to get yourself ready for games. If you're waiting for someone to say something about you individually or as a team, it might never come so you just have to have yourself ready. That's just the way I look at it.”

Compared to last year, Noel has seen more game time in the league, featuring in four of the six games, including a six point haul from play against Limerick, which was reassuring for him that he still had the ability to contribute in a starting role if required.

“No matter what age I've been over the years, there's times when things aren't going well for you and you're asking yourself, am I still able to do this or am I still at the level? Am I able to compete with the lads that are a few years younger?” he admitted.

“It is nice to be able to do that. That comes from training as well. Then when it comes to a match day, and you have a decent game, and you feel that you've done yourself justice, it does give you that confidence that you're still able to compete, that you're still at a decent level. So yeah it does (give reassurance).

“Obviously, with such a poor team performance, then you're questioning how you could have helped it to be better as well?”