No baggage as Noel McGrath looks forward to big clash

Noel McGrath believes Tipperary will not carry any baggage from last year’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final loss to Galway into Sunday’s rematch.

Their one-point defeat marked the end of Éamon O’Shea’s three-year reign as Tipp boss, while the managerial merry-go-round has since thrown up an interesting sidenote on the sideline this weekend with O’Shea’s former backroom-team member Micheál Donoghue in charge of Galway. But McGrath maintains the Premier men are not hung up on any aspect of last year’s defeat other than reversing the result.

“We’re a year on now and we have to look forward,” said the 25-year-old. “If we keep dwelling on last year, we’ll get stuck on it. So our main focus for the last year has been 2016 and an All-Ireland semi-final and preparing the best we can. There’s a lot of players involved that weren’t last year so we just have to prepare the best we can,” continued McGrath, who memorably came off the bench for that clash after recovering from testicular cancer.