Ciarán McGrath enjoying life in the red of Garrymore

He has done it all in club football and since joining up with the Garrymore footballers as a player-coach in 2022 Ciaran McGrath has become an important player for Martin Maloney’s side. The fact that the man who tasted All-Ireland success with Corofin is also a local Garda based in Claremorris means he’s immersed in local community life on a daily basis.

Four times he captured the greatest prize of all with his native Corofin, but McGrath will freely admit he’s enjoying his time with his new club; “We’re living in the area here and I get to play with my wife’s cousins which is great. It’s different to playing with Corofin, where I grew up, and it’s something I’m really enjoying and we’re taking it one game at a time and seeing we can go,” he explained after Garrymore’s match with Castlebar Mitchels on Saturday night.

McGrath made his name as a tough defender, notably winning an All-Ireland in 2015 despite playing with a cruciate injury, but he has moved into the last line of defence for Garrymore this season and he feels it’s going well; “It gets nervy at times when teams push up on you and your looking out onto the pitch and your trying to make the best decision to get the ball away but there is pressure no matter where you play on the field.”

There wasn’t too much sympathy for his fellow member of the goalkeeper’s union on Saturday night however after Rory Byrne was shown a black card after being caught in possession high up the field; “It’s something we have worked on where if a keeper does come out the field then the full forward needs to come at him from behind and in fairness to Trevor Nally he came like a train. Referees have no sympathy for keepers when they are out past the 45, they might protect them inside their own 21 but once they come out the field the referee is giving nothing and as soon as Byrne got tackled he was never going to get a free.”

McGrath summed up his place in the seniority group with his new club by already looking forward to the days of reminiscing about great nights for the club like Saturday’s visit of Mitchels; ““These are the game you want to play in. I told the lads in the dressing room beforehand and at half-time that these opportunities don’t come around that often. A lot of our lads wouldn’t have come up against the likes of Castlebar Mitchels at underage cause they are in B or C grade and Mitchels are always at the top of the A grade. Especially to have them at home, under lights, and it was something we spoke about that in years to come we’d like to sit down and talk about the time the great Castlebar Mitchels came to town and we rattled them.”

No doubt Garrymore supporters will be hoping it’s a long time before their new goalkeeper is sitting at the bar reminiscing about his playing day.