The barrier. The yardstick.

Walsh Park, 2 June 1996.

The day it all began for him.

Eighteen years of age, still a minor, thrown in by Tony Mansfield. In at the deep end of a Munster quarter-final, swimming with sharks like Nicky English and Pat Fox.

Raymie Ryan, the Tipp righthalf back, was his marker.

The reader will scarcely be surprised to discover that, like many a debutant before and since, McGrath was bypassed by the afternoon and the occasion.

The physical edge to the exchanges is what he remembers most. That and the point he scored in the first half at the country end from under the stand. "It was tough hurling back then, probably a bit tougher than now, " he recalls.

"Hard for a young fella to come in and adjust immediately. There'd been a good build-up to the match, we felt we had a fair chance. Walsh Park was packed. It was a scrappy game and we didn't play up to scratch. Tipp neither. But, getting the chance to take part was great."

In running the favourites to three points, Waterford both atoned for their hammering by Tipp the previous season and armed themselves with the hope that better days lay ahead. Two years later, one such day arrived. Pairc Ui Chaoimh, 1998 Munster semifinal, Tipperary the opposition. Waterford won by 0-21 to 2-12 to claim what McGrath describes as their "first big scalp" of the current era. Yet reaching a provincial decider was only the half of it.

"The really important thing about it was that, because of the back door, we were also into an All Ireland quarter-final. That had been a massive motivation beforehand. Win this, we told ourselves, and we'd have a summer of hurling, which was unheard of in Waterford at the time. And we did."

De banks again in 2000 for another clash with Tipp on an afternoon McGrath would prefer to forget about but never will. After starting like a house on fire against Philip Maher, he "went for one ball too many and came down on an ankle". Waterford's hopes crashed with him and McGrath was sidelined for the next three months.

The Pairc Ui Chaoimh seesaw continued to rock. The ending of the famine in 2002;

Paul O'Brien's late goal to see them through the 2004 provincial semi-final ("we probably stole that one, to be honest"); defeat with an injury-hit team to Tipperary in last year's equivalent;

revenge in the All Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park, with our man producing a command performance at centre-back and twice repelling late Tipp attempts at an equalising goal.

A typical encounter with Tipperary, Ken? Physically demanding, he replies.

Though they haven't been as settled as Cork these past few years, he adds ("but few teams have"), that hasn't made them any easier to play against. No less tough. No less confident either. "Tipperary teams are always confident. They always feel they can beat us. And we always feel we can beat them. Maybe that's why there's been so many good matches between us. Lots of goals."

Not that Waterford were confident of beating Tipperary once upon a time, McGrath concedes. Come to that, they weren't confident of beating anyone. "Without us realising it at the time, there probably was an inferiority complex there about all the top teams. Now we know we can have a cut off anyone, even if sometimes we haven't got the right result."

How much of a cut Waterford will have today is another matter. McGrath doesn't try to claim that a National League title . . . the county haven't won one since 1963 . . .

is top of their list of priorities, even if losing to Cork in the 1998 final "felt like losing a championship game". But they've come a long way in the meantime, and getting players right for the championship has long since taken over as the main objective.

That said, if a league medal were to materialise in the morning, McGrath would "grab it with both hands".

Blue and gold standing in the way today. Nothing new for him in that.