Eimear McGrath faces one of the biggest challenges of her career so far having torn her cruciate ligament in a club game recently but she’s up for the fight.
The Tipperary forward had an outstanding season, earning a PwC All-Star nomination that will more than likely lead to her first award next Friday night.
McGrath was the focal point of the Tipperary attack during their successful National League campaign, defeating Galway in the final before bringing that form into the championship.
She was on top form from play and from placed balls but unfortunately for her and Tipperary, a place in the All-Ireland final proved elusive once again.
The Tipperary camogie team have now lost six All-Ireland semi-finals in the last seven years and that’s why McGrath’s main emotion is one of disappointment as she looks back on the year.
“The overriding feeling with it is mostly disappointment with how it finished.
“When you come that close to breaking the barrier that we’ve come so close to breaking in the last couple of years, and to lose by a point again…it is sickening.”
But Tipperary won the Munster championship last year before landing National silverware for the first time in 20 years with that League final win, giving them something to build on this off-season.
“When you reflect on the year as a whole,” McGrath says, “You look back to April and the League win was huge for us as a group.
“It’s only when you think back on it that you have to take huge confidence from that, and take it for what it is - a national title in Croke Park.”
“Any of those games can come down to a bounce of a ball here or there. Galway would have been gunning for us, and it just didn’t go our way that day,” says McGrath, who is a teacher in Ursuline Secondary school in Thurles.
Tipp were on the right end of the fine margins in the League decider, winning out by a point as a late Carrie Dolan free drifted wide. It was a different story in the championship as this time, the same player nailed a late dead-ball to overcome the Premier in Nowlan Park.
McGrath knows all about the pressure Dolan faced as a free taker herself.
“Personally, the week of a game, I like to go over to the Ragg (Tipperary camogie pitch) on a Friday,” she says of her own free-taking routine.
30 April 2024; PwC GPA Player of the Month for March in camogie, Eimear McGrath of Tipperary, with her award at PwC’s office in Limerick. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
“I wouldn’t go that often and I mightn’t stay that long, but I’d just do enough to keep ticking over.
“I wouldn’t be mad into practicing them at training. If you’re doing it on your own, at least no one else can see you missing them,” she laughs.
“If I didn’t get down to the field the week of a match, it wouldn’t eat away at me, but it is nice to get down and if they’re going well, you’d nearly pack it in quicker and say ‘I’ll get out of here now while they’re going over!
“Nothing too fancy about it. No elaborate routine, I like to keep it simple.”
It certainly works for McGrath, who puts her impressive performances down to experience.
She has enjoyed much success with her club Drom-Inch, winning five Tipperary championships in a row before Clonoulty Rossmore finally broke their dominance this year.
Back in February, she scored 2-3 in the final to win her first Ashbourne Cup medal for UL.
“You do need a couple of years experience,” says the 24-year-old.
“Camogie has come on so much in the last couple of years that you’re gone from the day of girls coming out of minor and straight into the senior team.
“The skills and physicality have come on a huge amount and I suppose as the years go by, you try to develop along with it.
“As well, you get confidence playing with girls for a while, as a team we’ve grown a lot from that familiarity with each other.
“I don’t want to be bigging myself up or anything but I would have felt I had a good year with the club last year.
“I did a lot of hurling in the half forward line before that but was moved into the full forward line with Drom-Inch, and just seemed to be playing well in general.
“Then we had Ashbourne afterwards, I probably never really got a break in that time and when you stay hurling and stay playing the same game at times, it just kind of kept rolling.
“So I probably had a good run of it over the last 12 months.”
McGrath now faces a long road to recover from a cruciate ligament injury but she’s looking on the bright side.
“It will be a strange season coming up for me now.
“It’s good to get a break anyway, but it’s turned out to be a much longer one than I would have expected. Unfortunately, that’s just the joys of sport and look that’s what’s ahead of me.
“It will be difficult when the county scene kicks back in but what can you do. I have to get used to it and try to stay positive.
“I am playing non-stop now for years, so it’s probably the only real break I’ve gotten.
“I’ve heard there’s other things to do outside of camogie in your life,” she laughs, “ and I have to discover a few of them maybe.”
Noel, John and Brian McGrath are Eimear's first cousins. Sportsfile.
Watching her cousins in action for Loughmore-Castleiney on the dual front in the upcoming Munster club championships will keep her occupied for starters.
“It’s been strange not having a Loughmore match the last few weekends. Following them over the last couple of years has been unbelievable,” she says, with her dad Frankie having managed the club in recent years.
“My first outing in Croke Park was watching Noel (McGrath) in the 2009 All-Ireland semi-final for Tipperary.”
Has John come looking for free-taking advice?
“We don’t talk about hurling as much as I’d say people think!
“Definitely not about frees. I don’t think John needs advice off of anyone but if he wants some I’m sure I could tell him something,” she laughs.
