McGrath pleased to be back in the team and to help Kildare back to winning ways

It’s been a frustrating five months for James McGrath since he limped out in the 19th minute of Athy’s Leinster semi-final win over Portarlington last November.

He was named to start the final the following week at Croke Park against Ballyboden St Endas and warmed up with his team-mates but shortly before throw-in felt he wasn’t right. Instead of lining out when the ball was thrown in, he spent the duration of the game on the sidelines.

That’s something that he has grown accustomed to this year as his National League campaign consisted of a five minute substitute appearance against Derry and then 68 minutes against Cavan.

Like a number of other squad members, he was nothing but a frustrated spectator as Kildare slipped to the defeats that eventually consigned them to relegation from Division 2.

Kildare supporters were buoyed to hear of his return for last Sunday’s Leinster Championship quarter-final against Laois. There was never any doubt that the Athy man would everything he could do to be fit for a game against south Kildare’s biggest rivals but supporters of a nervous disposition would have noted the heavy strapping on McGrath’s right thigh around that troublesome hamstring area.

Thankfully, it didn’t hamper him in the slightest as proved with a couple of bone shuddering challenges during the game.

“I’m feeling good,” said McGrath straight after Sunday’s win, before going on to explain the strapping.

“It's just precautionary, just to kind of compress it, just to make sure. It was a long season last year with Athy so you're kind of playing catch up in the pre-season, and then your body's under a bit of strain. You need a rest after those months. That injury almost helped me in a way, just to get a bit of a breath and get a good pre-season done again.

“Now we're up and running when the ground's hard. Lovely weather, it's good to be back,” said McGrath.

After the disappointing run of five defeats to round off the league, McGrath said it was hugely important for Kildare to get back to winning ways.

“It was good to kind of get a result after not the way we wanted the league to end. We felt like if we just could have got away with staying up in Division 2 it would have really helped us next year because iron sharpens iron.

“You're a bit disappointed when you get demoted at any time and then you have to deal with the soul searching. You kind of reset, refocus, regroup and get ready for the Championship and I think we put in a good performance here,” said McGrath, after the 1-20 to 1-15 victory.

There were moments in the first half that didn’t go Kildare’s way with two goals conceded and a missed penalty but McGrath said the work done with the squad’s Performance Coach has helped in those moments.

“We have a Performance Coach, Emer Fogarty and she talks a lot about resilience in moments like that. You kind of just take a deep breath and reset. You know you'll get the opportunity again. We're very good at getting ourselves into those sort of positions. You kind of just reset,” said McGrath.

Kildare now go into preparation mode for Leinster semi-final against Westmeath in Tullamore on Sunday 3 May. There may have been some surprise around the province at Westmeath’s win over Meath, it was no surprise to those in the Kildare camp after a couple of tight battles against Lake County over the last 12 months.

“Westmeath definitely have a good bit of bite to them,” said McGrath “They wouldn't roll over to any opposition. I know Meath are good, but they were never going to go out and just let them roll over them. We’re just looking forward to the next two weeks now,” said McGrath