Tipperary's Young Hurler of the Year Noel McGrath is looking forward to another successful year in the blue and gold.

The teenager made a huge impact in his debut season with Liam Sheedy's team, but not even his brilliance could prevent Tipp from losing the National League and All-Ireland finals to Kilkenny.

The Premier County will have an opportunity to avenge those defeats when they renew their rivalry with Brian Cody's side in the opening round of the National League at Semple Stadium in three weeks' time, but McGrath is playing down the significance of that game.

"People will take a lot of interest in it but for us, it is just the start of the league," he said.

"It's a chance to get it up and running, to get ourselves going again and hopefully get back on the right track to where we want to go again next year."

The All-Star forward claims that the Tipp players have got last year's All-Ireland final heartbreak "out of their system".

He added: "For a few days afterwards we were gutted after losing the way we did, being so close and yet we were so far away at the finish.

"But we got on with it. We had club games a week or two after and we got it out of our system." Tweet

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