Looking through broken windows as Derek McGrath eyes Waterford perfection

The statute of limitations having elapsed, it’s time the following tale were told. Derek McGrath may be temporarily chagrined at having it revealed to the nation but he’ll cope. He’s coped with much worse in the past fortnight.

The occasion was one of Waterford’s matches in Semple Stadium two or three years ago. Afterwards, in conclave with the media under the Old Stand, McGrath talked wryly about how he’d spent the afternoon “running up the sideline like a fat Mourinho” before recollecting himself and asking the journos not to use the line. Too much scope for a passing piece of self-deprecation to get twisted.

Being mad about McGrath and being decent sorts anyway (really), the journos obliged. Like Sherlock Holmes and the giant rat of Sumatra, it was a tale for which the world was not yet ready. Now it is.