'For our parish, this is unbelievable': McGrath family enjoy more Tipperary county senior success

Loughmore-Castleiney’s victory over a fancied Clonmel Commercials side took the McGrath brothers' combined haul of county senior medals to 28.

Loughmore-Castleiney's John McGrath and Clonmel Commercials' Cathal Deely contest the high ball. Pic: Diarmuid Brennan/Sportsfocus.

For the McGrath brothers, Sunday was another famous day.  Loughmore-Castleiney’s victory over a fancied Clonmel Commercials side took their combined haul of county senior medals to 28.

Noel has now reached 11 (six football, five hurling), John climbed to 10 (six football, four hurling), and Brian captained the side for his seventh (four football, three hurling).

Add in first cousin Liam, who has been named man of the match in the 2024 football final, 2025 hurling final, and 2026 football final triumphs, and that’s another 10 medals into the pot. And that’s without mentioning the rest of their cousins on the panel.

For John, who collected his own individual accolades as Hurler of the Year in 2025, maintaining that footballing heritage is about honouring those who came before them.

“It's huge. Traditionally, the club, going way back, would have been a predominantly football club,” he said.

“There would be particularly older people in the parish who would have more of a sway to football than hurling. It's great to be able to keep that going and to bring it on through the last few years.

“We probably train more for hurling during the year, but we never shy back from the football and having a good proper go at it.

“It's just trying to honour the past players and the club's tradition is what we're trying to do as best as we can. You see it with all the people out here, young and old. For our parish, this is unbelievable.

“It’s hugely satisfying. There's probably about a thousand people in the parish and to be out competing every weekend, it's just brilliant.

“It's in years to come when we look back, we'll be able to appreciate the success we've had over the years.

“They're not all going to be like this, so you have to enjoy them when you do get a few wins along the way.”

The last two minutes were particularly nerve-racking for John. Having kicked the insurance score of a 0-15 to 0-13 success, he was black-carded for pulling down an opponent.

“I'm probably lucky I scored it because I left the boys hanging on a man down for the last two minutes, so maybe they evened each other out a small bit,” he smiled.

“It's tough. When our supporters say to you after games that we don't make it easy, that two minutes felt like five or ten minutes.

“In that moment, it's horrible, but in fairness to the lads, to a man, they put their hands up in the last few minutes. Nobody did anything else stupid or something as simple as you might breach and not have three up. The lads were well clued in right to the finish, so that was very important.” Loughmore reached the Munster final after their last football title in 2024, losing to Dr Crokes in the decider.

This time around, they must travel to meet the Cork champions, Nemo Rangers or St Finbarr’s, in the quarter-final on Sunday, November 8th.

“It's going to be another step up, another tough battle, but we've come up against Clonmel here, who would be as good as a lot of teams around,” said John.

“So you know you're capable of doing it; it just comes down to on the day.

“We had a decent outing last time we got out of Tipp, albeit a poor Munster final, but it's like that. The level just goes up and you have to be on your game every day.”