Fingerprints of Hopper McGrath’s Galway all over current side

Even by his early teenage years he had been picked out as a future star when an elderly neighbour pinned ‘Hopper’ to Michael McGrath.

When you’re given a nickname of an All-Ireland winner from the other side of the country the pressure is on from the start, but the Sarsfields man wore that weight well and left the county scene in 1996 with two Liam MacCarthys, minor and U21 All-Irelands, two club All-Irelands and a pair of Vocational Schools titles.

He may have bettered Oliver McGrath’s tally with Wexford, but the sting in the tail is that he still feels short-changed.