McGrath commits to Tipp for 2027 and backs Cahill to stay on as boss

John McGrath of Tipperary in action against William O'Donoghue of Limerick. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

John McGrath has confirmed that he wants to go again with Tipperary in 2027 and has backed manager Liam Cahill to turn things around after a disappointing season.

Reigning Hurler of the Year McGrath will turn 32 next month but said he has no plans to quit county activity.

As for his older brother, Noel, who will be 36 over winter, John echoed the words of manager Cahill after the team's Championship exit that the four-time All-Ireland winner is 'entitled to make up his own mind whenever he sees fit at this stage'.

John, who started all four of Tipp's Munster championship games, is certain that he wants to keep going though.

"That's the plan at the moment," said McGrath, who is an ambassador for Comfort Keepers, the community impact partner of the GAA/GPA.

"We'll see what happens over the next couple of months but I've no immediate plans to be stepping away or anything anyway."

The Loughmore-Castleiney man said that, as things stand, nobody from the group has retired and he's hopeful that the entire squad can return again next season under Cahill.

The management team came in for inevitable criticism after finishing bottom of the Munster round-robin with Cahill himself hitting out at 'nameless' critics and 'so-called' fans.

Asked if he feels Cahill is the right man to lead Tipp again in 2027, McGrath gave a resounding response.

"Absolutely," he said. "We've had a couple of good years, and a couple of tough years as well, together. But I don't think there's anyone, certainly not in the group of players, that have gone.

"And I don't think that there'll be anyone calling for a change of management. It's probably just across the board that we need to be a bit more consistent.

"If you look at the management's first year in 2023, it was quite good. We performed well in Munster, maybe finished in the quarter-final with a poor performance, but showed we certainly were able to compete.

"The following year, a poor enough showing and knocked out early. In 2025, obviously really competitive again. So it's certainly there in the group, there's certainly enough talent. There's no question about that, and the (management) lads are the ones to lead it.

"We just need to find a way of getting more consistency through, not to be having year after year of this issue of competing one year and not the next. It's hard to build a couple of years in a row when results are going like that."

McGrath, speaking from his holiday base in Slovenia, acknowledged that performances in Munster were a letdown.

"Cork beat you by four points, you know, we performed okay without being very good," he said. "The second half of the Waterford game was very disappointing. Then the last two games, going down the way we did was tough, not to be competing.

"I think if we had gone out of the Championship swinging, or gone out in a different manner, maybe people wouldn't have been as hard on us."

Further bad news for Tipp was the broken ankle suffered by captain Ronan Maher last weekend while playing for his club Thurles Sarsfields. According to Tipp FM, Maher has already undergone surgery.

"Up until last year, even in the League, I can rarely remember him missing many games, League or Championship, for Tipp," said McGrath. "And he's hardly ever missed games for Sarsfields over the years. It's a tough blow for him, particularly after getting an operation at the end of last year as well and overcoming that.

"It would be a tough one for anyone. Hopefully he gets it right first and foremost. He's relatively upbeat about it. That's kind of his form for most things anyway, he just ploughs on and gets on with it, so hopefully he'll come back fully right in no time."