*Shane McGrath. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
FEAKLE’s current crop may only get one chance at lifting the Canon Hamilton and star man Shane McGrath says they are determined to grab the opportunity with both hands.
Shane McGrath has been electric in 2024. The Feakle forward has scored 2-55 across five championship games on the road to Sunday’s TUS Clare Senior Hurling Championship decider. The 2-22 from play is impressive enough before you factor in 33 frees.
“It’s nice to hit a bit of form,” he says, modestly. “Last year wasn’t great. I struggled a bit with my own form. Obviously we lost the semi-final and things didn’t go well for us or myself. I feel like maybe I let people down at the end of last year so it was in the back of my head to bounce back this year. I wanted to get the form back and make sure that didn’t happen again,” he told The Clare Echo.
He is, by a distance, the top scorer from both open play and placed balls. He accounts for 51% of Feakle’s scores. For the opposition, Sixmilebridge get 43% of their scores from Alex Morey while Brian Corry currently ranks seventh in championship scores from play (0-17). Feakle have a strong supporting cast too, but Sixmilebridge would be foolish not to focus on McGrath and his supply.
“It’s definitely something I’ve gotten used to the last few years,” he says. “I think the biggest thing is to be as patient as you can with it.”
“When you’re training with the likes of [Adam] Hogan, you’re getting well trained for how you’d be marked in matches. If you can get one ball off him, you’d be thinking you might get a couple off someone else. Nightmare. Adam is just quick and strong. Very hard to win a ball of him, not to mind do damage. Conn [Smyth] is the same”.
Feakle’s ‘Plan A’ will revolve around their top marksman. ‘Plan B’ probably does too, however many Bridge players pick him up. So what’s the plan for McGrath to switch things around if he can’t get into the game? “Management give the lads the freedom to make those decisions. It might be Martin [Daly] inside and he’d pop out for ten minutes or I’ll pop in. We’ll just swap over. They let us manage it ourselves on the field. I think that’s the best way of doing it because lads are really bought into what they’re doing then. It’s working for us so far this year, anyway.
“A lot of it comes down to experience. Personally, myself I would have gotten very frustrated earlier in my career if I didn’t start well. If I missed a couple of frees, next thing I miss all the frees. Or if the ball isn’t going in, you wouldn’t be in the game it all. When you get a little bit more experience, you just have to stay patient and stick with it. Especially up in the forwards. You might get a chance here and there, just to get yourself in the game. The biggest thing is just sticking with it. The game is sixty minutes long. If the first ten or fifteen minutes don’t go your way, you still have to be in the game”.
Cratloe really went after Feakle in the third quarter of their semi-final on October 5th. McGrath responded with five points in a row. He practises what he preaches. “Confidence has a lot to do with it,” he says. “I’ve had some bad games where a couple of things didn’t go my way and confidence drops. Then you’re struggling and fighting to get it back. Sometimes the harder you try, the worse it gets whereas there is a bit more of a flow this year. It comes a bit easier when the confidence is up. It’s just the way it is, I suppose”.
Shane is thirty one, as a fitness professional that age is just a number, but it’s given him time to add experience and resilience to his skill set.
He has no intention of losing a final to win a final. “We might never get the chance again,” he says. “My first year playing senior with Feakle was in 2010 and we were in a relegation playoff. We’ve been relegated. We’ve won intermediate. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs. There’s a core group of ten or twelve lads who have been together through that. We’re taking it that we might get one shot at this so we have to make it our best one”.
What’s he doing to keep ready for Sunday? “I try and hit a few frees most days. Even just 15 minutes. Go up and hit 20 balls, then go away home and chillax. You can’t really bury your head in the sand. With the gym work, you’re meeting an awful lot of people in East Clare obviously into their hurling. There’s plenty of talk about it. I don’t mind it”.
So says a man who’s ready for the walk behind the Tulla Pipe Band.
