An icon in Waterford and beyond, Ken McGrath is one of only three players in the history of the GAA to collect All-Star hurling awards in three different lines of the field, and one of the only men in the last 50 years to play minor, U21, and senior hurling in the same season. He embodied the defiance and panache that re-established a downtrodden county as a hurling superpower. McGrath bought that status dearly. In 2001 he was tearing Tipperary apart in Páirc Uí Chaoimh when he tore ankle ligaments badly. He played on for another half hour. In 2002, on a wintry afternoon in Thurles, he came off the bench with a badly damaged shoulder but somehow smuggled the late winner over the bar against Cork. In 2004, when 14-man Waterford were trying to hold Cork at bay as the Munster final wound down, the final, desperate attack was killed by a soaring catch from McGrath. When he was upended coming out with the ball the game was as good as over, and he knew it,