Tipp target era of dominance
By Jackie Cahill and John Fogarty
Wednesday, January 19, 2011

SHANE MCGRATH insists Tipperary are better equipped to retain their
All-Ireland hurling crown than the team that captured the title in 2001.
Tipp failed to build on their success of almost a decade ago and endured a
nine-year wait before finally breaking through last September. But on the
back of last year's senior and U21 double, and with a glut of new players
coming through, another famine is difficult to envisage.

McGrath insisted: "I don't think we're too conscious of 2001 - that was a
different team to what we are. They were top class but we're a fairly good
team as well and we have that confidence going forward. It wasn't a fluke
that we got to the All-Ireland final in 2010 and we'll be there or
thereabouts again this year if we get things right and we train hard enough.
I'm not really thinking about 2001 - that's long in the past."

Brendan Cummins, Lar Corbett, Eoin Kelly and John O'Brien had to wait almost
a decade before capturing a second All-Ireland medal, having also featured on
the 2001 team.

New manager Declan Ryan won his third All-Ireland medal in three different
decades while current coach Tommy Dunne lifted the McCarthy Cup as captain.

Ballinahinch clubman McGrath added: "We have a lot of lads mature enough, and
the guys from 2001, to realise that you can't live in the past. We're going
to train as hard, if not harder, to retain the title. It's going to be very
difficult because if you look at Kilkenny over the last few years, everyone's
biggest game was when they played Kilkenny. But they rose to the challenges
and above them.

"We have to aspire to be like them or the Cork teams of 2004 and 2005."

McGrath, 26, insisted that the 2010 panellists have closed the door on last
year's historic victory, which denied the Cats an historic five-in-a-row.

And he also revealed: "I haven't really sat down and watched it from start to
finish. You'd see it here and there at functions and it was a great
spectacle. The speech that Eoin (Kelly) gave summed up everything and how we
all felt.

"There's no better man than Eoin to sum it up and I saw a couple of shows
over Christmas and the hairs stood on the back of my neck.