Level-headed McGrath has Tipperary’s future on his shoulders

IN the second half of the All-Ireland hurling final the future arrived. Tipperary’s Noel McGrath stood under the Hogan Stand and swung over a point from halfway against Kilkenny, and all of Knocknagow rejoiced.

The image cried out to be immortalised, maybe as an analogy: Youth Meets Experience and is Undaunted. Kilkenny won, as everyone knows, but McGrath had announced himself on the grandest stage around.

It wasn’t his own 2009 highlight, mind you.