Everyone comes together for mighty Tipperary double winners

28 November 2021; Loughmore/Castleiney captain Noel McGrath celebrates with his father Pat after their side's victory in the Tipperary County Senior Club Hurling Championship Final Replay match between Thurles Sarsfields and Loughmore/Castleiney at Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

It ended in beautiful chaos, with bodies strewn everywhere to try last-gasp blocks and despairing challenges, so the obvious place to start is with the man who restored order to Semple Stadium yesterday.

Thurles Sarsfields and Loughmore-Castleiney were locked together in a savage, churning battle for the Tipperary senior hurling title until the game was there to be won at the far corner of the Town End.

A late free to Loughmore-Castleiney. John McGrath the taker.

“I had a small bit of an argument with a few of them there,” said McGrath afterwards.

“They were trying to make me bring it in to the 21, but it was just about staying composed.

“It’s something you practice a long, long time, since I was young — you just take your time over it and go through the process. When you see the ball sail between the posts it’s just absolute relief and joy. A sweet one.” 

It was inevitable that McGrath would have the final say, as the senior championship has been his playground all year. Correction: both senior championships. The previous Sunday he hit the winning goal in the Tipperary football final against Clonmel Commercials. At the same end of the field.

Last Sunday he defied the angle to put the ball between the posts, giving Loughmore the lead as the clock ticked into the red zone. There was still time for Thurles to create an equaliser, and Loughmore had to hold the town side out to finally get over the line.

“I don’t think at any stage you could feel safe in that game,” said McGrath.

“There was a fair scrap below on the 21 for — it felt like a long time, I don’t know how long it was — but credit to everyone, it was a huge effort.

“For the Sarsfields lads too, the last two weeks, a point in it between the two games — they’re a fantastic team and thank God we just sneaked it today.” 

Sneaked it might be underselling the Loughmore appetite a little. During the week in this newspaper Eoin Kelly identified trace elements of their football exploits in Loughmore-Castleiney’s hurling, but the evidence of their dual commitment was maybe visible in the rust on show early on in this game.

Thurles Sarsfields were far more clinical in the opening ten minutes, running up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead as well as wasting a good goal chance. It was 0-5 to 0-2 at the first water break as Loughmore’s wides tally began to count.

They had 13 wides but a late Noel McGrath point made it 0-9 to 0-6 at the break, however. Three points was a manageable defict, as they proved on the resumption.

Thurles started hitting wides — four in the first four minutes of the second half — while John McGrath, Evan Sweeney and John Meagher had levelled matters by the 35th minute.

Wing-back Brian McGrath then flashed through for a terrific Loughmore goal, jumping them three ahead. Noel McGrath made it a four point game but Thurles responded just at the second water break with a Denis Maher goal — 1-11 to 1-10 and all to play for in the final quarter.

Liam McGrath found the net from close range on 50 minutes — 2-12 to 1-11 — but even that decisive lead was erased. Thurles sub Sean Butler pointed and when a Loughmore free went awry Darragh Stakelum crashed home another Thurles goal.

With the teams level the game had now, depending on your viewpoint, blossomed or disintegrated into a race for the finishing tape. No bookie in Ireland would have given you odds against the eventual match-winner.

“That’s what John McGrath does,” said Loughmore boss Frankie McGrath afterwards.

“John McGrath is the man for the big stage.” The manager went beyond the cliches to tease out some of the real-world challenges of preparing a team for county finals in both codes: “There are difficulties, and it probably contributed a little bit to our shooting.

“When you think about it, like, we had one training session since the drawn game — we had one hurling training session. And that’s under lights in a mucky field of a wet evening. So it’s hardly ideal preparation to fine-tune your team for today.

“If we hit 12 wides it means that we were having our share of the play, so there was lots of things going the way that we needed them to go.

“We were confident if we could maintain the intensity that we brought to the game and just tidy up our shooting that, well, something could happen for us in the second half and, thankfully for us, it did.” 

Thurles won’t enjoy looking at reruns of this game. They were deserved leaders at half-time and had an established and successful template — long deliveries to the powerful Denis Maher, with Pa Bourke coming off Maher’s shoulder for the handpass. They responded well to Loughmore’s goals, finding the net twice themselves, but those second half wides were fatal.

Perhaps the secret sauce for the winners was explained by John McGrath: “There could be ten lads (with Loughmore) who have been playing senior for nearly ten years, we’re a hugely experienced team.

“Evan Sweeney and Kevin McGrath could have 20 seasons under their belts, so it’s a very mature team, a lot of lads in their late twenties with a lot of experience.

“And that’s massive coming down the stretch in games, that calmness and composure to get over the line.” 

Thurles aren’t lacking in experience themselves, of course, but in a game which was simultaneously a contest of fine margins and a festival of ferocity late on, the team which got their match-winner on the ball was always going to have a decisive advantage.

To paraphrase Robert Creamer long ago, everything came together: the year, the moment and John McGrath.