Christy O'Connor: Maestro McGrath conducts the Loughmore orchestra yet again
CLASS: Loughmore Castleiney's Noel McGrath in action against Holycross Ballycahill. Pic: Diarmuid Brennan
When Noel McGrath put Loughmore-Castleiney ahead by five points in the 57th minute of Saturday’s Tipperary semi-final against Holycross-Ballycahill, former Tipperary manager Michael Ryan neatly encapsulated how McGrath has long been identified - and cherished - inside and outside of Tipperary. “He’s like a maestro conducting an orchestra,” said Ryan in his RTÉ TV co-commentary.
It was another exquisite performance from the conductor, particularly in the circumstances of McGrath and his wife Aisling having welcomed their baby daughter into the world the previous day. “It’s fairly surreal, but it’s been a great few days,” said McGrath in his TV interview afterwards.
Winning a fifth All-Ireland in July copperfastened his status as one of Tipperary’s greatest players but his continued brilliance with Loughmore-Castleiney, in both codes, has confirmed McGrath’s iconic status within the county.
Now chasing a fifth county senior hurling title, McGrath is also hunting a fourth hurling/football double, the magnitude of which is underlined by the fact that no club had ever won a double in Tipperary prior to 2013.
In his tenth hurling semi-final, McGrath led the charge again on Saturday in a low-scoring battle when scoring 0-4 from seven shots. The timing of his scores was also decisive, especially his two in quick succession just before half-time, both of which came when Holycross were on a run and had just levelled the match. The second of those points, in the 28th minute, was the score of the game, with McGrath dispossessing Joe Caesar before playing a one-two and launching a monster score from close to 100 yards.
It was far from a perfect performance from the reigning champions and yet, it was another vintage Loughmore-Castleiney display, finding a way to win once more when performing below their best.
Against a young and emerging Holycross-Ballycahill side, with ten of their starting team U21 last year, Loughmore just ground it out and wore their opponents down. The Holycross-Ballycahill defence played well. Cathal Barrett kept John McGrath scoreless from play, but Loughmore sat deep at the other end and held the Holycross attack in a headlock. After averaging 3-24 in their three big wins against Toomevara, Kiladangan and Cashel King Cormacs, Holycross-Ballycahill were restricted to just 0-15 on Saturday.
“They’re a serious team, one of the best club sides ever in Tipperary,” said Holycross manager Brendan Ryan afterwards.
Loughmore-Castleiney are. And they’re driven by one of the greatest players Tipperary has ever produced.
It was a major shock because East Kerry were going for three in a row. Nobody expected it to happen, especially when the divisional side looked as strong as ever. And nobody saw East Kerry being held to such a paltry score.
That storyline though, isn’t taken from East Kerry’s shock defeat to Rathmore on Saturday, but from their surprising loss to Austin Stacks in the 2021 championship. Stacks were a serious side at that time, having won three Kerry club titles in a row, but, few still fancied them to beat the divisional giants. And even fewer expected them to restrict East Kerry to just 1-5.
That was a complete anomaly for the divisional side who had averaged 1-16 in their previous nine games across the double-winning seasons of 2019 and 2020. The lowest score East Kerry had hit in those two seasons was 1-11 against a good St Brendan’s team in the 2020 semi-final. And East Kerry still won that match by six points.
There were stages across the last three years when East Kerry didn’t always shoot the lights out. They only managed 1-9 against Dingle in the 2022 semi-final, but that match was played in brutal weather conditions against a really good side.
That was the lowest score East Kerry had amassed since that Austin Stacks game in 2021 but they scored 0-3 less in Saturday’s shock defeat, when the divisional side could only manage a paltry 0-9.
Rathmore’s 14-point demolition job was sensational on a number of fronts, especially in how they kept East Kerry scoreless for the last 28 minutes. When East Kerry hammered Rathmore by 10 points in last year’s championship, they posted an impressive 4-16.
East Kerry had averaged 2-22 in their two previous games in this year’s championship against St Kieran’s and Templenoe. The new rules have given teams more licence to register far more scores, but Rathmore limited East Kerry to just seven scores in total on Saturday.
Some performance from Rathmore. Some shock in Kerry.
Prior to Erin’s Own Cargin’s Antrim’s semi-final against Creggan two weeks ago, the journalist Jerome Quinn did some research on Cargin that revealed fascinating data and insights.
In their previous 26 knockout championship matches, extending back to 2017, Cargin had won 22, drawn three and lost just one, a semi-final to Creggan in 2021. Quinn also produced the staggering numbers to show how Cargin had not conceded a single goal in senior championship knockout football since the 2022 final against St Mary’s Aghagallon.
The data just followed a similar trend in that semi-final. Despite being pushed to the extreme, Cargin won again. And they kept another clean sheet across nearly 90 minutes of action before winning on penalties.
Cargin went into yesterday’s final against Dunloy Cuchullains hot favourites to win a ninth county title in 11 years, which would have cemented their status as one of the greatest sides in Antrim’s history, alongside the brilliant St John’s team of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and just behind the outstanding St Gall’s team that won 13 titles in 14 years between 2001 and 2014.
Nobody in Dunloy though, was thinking that way with the Cuchullains producing a brilliant display to blow Cargin away and win a first senior football title since 1936.
After only conceding an average of 0-9 in the last two finals, Cargin were hit for 3-12 here. Three goals could have been at least five as Dunloy tore Cargin to shreds at stages with the pace and power of their running game. Dunloy announced their intent from the first whistle when four of their first five shots were for two-pointers. Their conversion rate was only 36 per cent in the first half but Dunloy never took a backward step all afternoon.
Despite being hit by 1-1 from Conhuir Johnston either side of half-time, which reduced the margin to one point and triggered expectations of the Cargin machine finally cranking into gear, Dunloy just dropped the pedal and ran straight over their opponents.
More renowned as an Ulster hurling superpower, having contested five All-Ireland club finals, this team is packed with dual players. Seann and Nigel Elliott, Keelan Molloy and Ryan McGarry – who registered a combined 2-11 – all played in the 2023 All-Ireland final against Ballyhale Shamrocks.
The culture has clearly changed in Dunloy but the present, and future, has never been brighter for the club. Back in June, Dunloy won a historic first double FĂ©ile (underage) in hurling and football.
