“Exhausted" John McGrath Revels In Triumphant Tipperary Return

The sleeping giant is awake, Tipperary are back fighting. On Saturday, they came roaring out of the lions' den that is Ennis with a 4-18 to 2-21 win against the All-Ireland champions Clare, effectively ending their Liam McCarthy title defence.

Clare might mathematically still be in with a shout, but they will need to beat Limerick in the Gaelic grounds, hope that Cork also overcome Limerick and will then need Waterford to get the job done against a resurgent Tipperary next weekend.

This weekend, however, all eyes were on John McGrath, who rolled back the years with a man-of-the-match display and claimed 2-03 from play in a breathtaking performance.

After 70 minutes that saw Tipp build a healthy lead only for Brian Lohan's men to make it an out-and-out battle in the closing stages, the Loughmore man was absolutely exhausted, but relieved to finish the job in what was a pulsating affair.

"Exhausted and relieved are the two major emotions,” he said.

We just about hung on, but we got a couple of scores and breaks at the end, which we badly needed because they threw the kitchen sink at us.

We knew it wasn’t going to be different, as we were warned with the Cork game a couple of weeks back. Look, every team gets its purple patch. Thank God we managed to hold on in the end.

😅 "Exhausted... and relieved."

John McGrath sums it up after a massive shift put down by @TipperaryGAA to defeat Clare in the @MunsterGAA SHC💪 Hurling clips brought to you by @eir #eirforall #CLAVTIP pic.twitter.com/odxTaqrmzu

— GAA+ (@GAAPlusOfficial) May 10, 2025

After a torrid time with injuries, McGrath had little desire to reminisce on his time sidelines, explaining that he was 'loving every minute' of his return to action with the Premier Men.

“100% Jesus, you would have to be”

“It’s great being back and getting out there more often than I have in recent years; it's just unreal to be battling with lads. I grew up watching these Munster championship games. It’s probably easier to be stuck in the middle of them than watching on. I'm loving every minute of it now.

We came down here just wanting to get out of here with the two points by whatever means that was we grinded it out in the important finish that we digged in and fought back when that game was getting close and could have possible gotten away from us lads made a great impact and brought great energy you need everyone on these hot summer days it’s a full 20 plus job now a days

If the Munster U2o final between the same two sides can deliver anything near the standard game of what McGrath endured on Saturday, the week ahead could be shaping up to be absolutely sensational.