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.

As wing-forward and corner-forward in 1987 and ’88, McGrath was one of the rocks that Cyril Farrell build his team around.

The image of him, topped with a red helmet, in full flight with the sliotar on the tip of his hurley is an iconic image of Galway’s greatest hurling era, but never in his wildest dreams did he think it would stop there.

“Even in ’88 we thought ourselves we’d win another All-Ireland or two, not to mind Galway not having won one since at all. We were sure there was another one or two in us.”

Beating Kilkenny and Tipperary in their two All-Ireland final wins were sweet victories, but they were all the tastier considering Galway had lost to Offaly and Cork in the previous two deciders. But a fifth final in a row was never reached.

In 1989 the Keady affair was followed by defeat to Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final, a clash that saw Sylvie Linnane and McGrath sent-off.

McGrath saw the line for a lunge on Conor O’Donovan, but on his way off an exchange of words with John Leahy ended up with the Tipp man flattened. That game and the build up to it still rankles.

“Look, he had a bit to say as I was running off the field and I felt harshly done by. What happened, happened. You have to forget about these things too, but if we had won in 1990 it would have made up for it. Not winning the following year made it all the more disappointing.

“I had one leg off the ground, but look, I couldn’t believe it when he sent me off. There was only three points in it at that stage, it was a killer.

“You’d have bad memories of it alright. The weeks leading up to it, an awful lot was going on.

In hindsight, maybe we got involved in it a bit much, if we had stood back it could have developed a bit differently.”

Keady was a constant thread in McGrath’s hurling career, but long before they pulled on maroon shirts together for the Galway U16s they were well aware of each other. Three or four miles separate their home places and their respective clubs, Sarsfields and Killimordaly, straddle each other’s border. Enemies soon became friends.

“Eanna Ryan and himself were the one age, and myself and Joe Cooney were back the road from them in Sarsfields. The four of us on the team from a small area.

“At club level the rivalry was fierce at times, but you’ll have that with neighbouring clubs. It was all forgotten when you went out with the county.

“Me and Tony played U16 together for Galway and we won two Vocational titles together in ’80 and ’81. He played centre-forward then, and he was good in it too. He got a chance he usually took it.”

The fingerprints of that 80s team is all over Galway today. Keady trained several of the players before his heart-wrenching death last month, while Joe Cooney’s and Gerry McInerney’s sons will try and emulate their fathers tomorrow. McGrath’s daughters, Orlaith, Niamh, and Siobhan, are part of the Galway camogie team and joined a fourth sister, Clodagh, as Sarsfields won their first county camogie title last year — Hopper is their manager.

As a Sarsfields man, McGrath will be shouting loudest for Joseph Cooney and he is thrilled to see his progression.

“In fairness, himself and his father are two different type of hurlers.

Sarsfields won the county champions in 2015, the first since ’97, and no doubt without him they wouldn’t have won it, simple as that.

“Micheál Donoghue has shown coincidence in him, and he is after getting a run of games and he has built up huge confidence.

“Joe had all the skills of the game. He did it when it mattered, especially a lot of games for us at club level.

“Joseph is very good in the air, but people mightn’t realise it, he is neat as a hurler as well. The Leinster final day, he scored points left and right. He has loads of hurling, there is no doubt about it.”