Just four counties will take part in the upcoming McGrath Cup following the withdrawals of Kerry and Tipperary.

Both counties will instead be putting all their focus on their Allianz League first round games against Donegal and Cork respectively at the end of January.

Kerry won the Munster pre-season competition last year, but county board chairman Tim Murphy confirmed yesterday that they won't be defending their title.

"We had a meeting with the Munster Council last Wednesday night and found out Tipperary were withdrawing from the competition," he told Radio Kerry.

"Then we got a series of scheduled dates for the competition, starting on Saturday, 30 December. The final being on 21 January, if we did happen to get to the final, would be just a week before the first National League game in Killarney.

"We just felt our preparations would be better served by concentrating on training as opposed to the McGrath Cup. We felt it was a very intensive six weeks with one bye, so that was the reason."

Meanwhile, Joe O'Connor and Niall O'Mahony have been appointed to Eamonn Fitzmaurice's backroom team for the coming season as strength and conditioning coaches. Rathkeale native O'Connor was involved with the Clare hurlers when they lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2013, while Spa clubman O'Mahony made a number of appearances for Kerry before suffering a career-ending injury.

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