The Shane McGrath Interview: 'We should have won three All-Irelands'

Coming from an unfashionable club, discarded by Tipp minors, even one All-Ireland looked a distant prospect for Shane McGrath. He steps away from the game grateful, yet wondering why he didn’t win more...

Energy floods Shane McGrath’s voice as he chases hurling past. He tilts back in the seat, mind’s eye on the 2010 All-Ireland final, Kilkenny’s challenge. The grain of his voice tightens: “There was a three or a four minute period when the ball didn’t leave between the two 45s. It was just hooking, it was just blocking. There were rucks. It was so ferocious.” Those matches streak the sky for his group of Tipperary hurlers. Their lustre will not lessen now that he has stepped away, at 31, into retirement. Also gone are Lar Corbett, Conor O’Mahony and James Woodlock. An era is thinning out.

McGrath turns to 2014 and Kilkenny, draw and replay: “The intensity was unbelievable. Especially for the first 15 minutes, the first day. It was phenomenal.