Last Friday night Marty McGrath was in championship action at Brewster Park as Ederney lost their SFC opener to Enniskillen. The 41 year old though had little time to dwell on that loss as by the next afternoon he had an All Ireland final to play - the former All Star part of the Tyrone Masters side that defeated Dublin in the decider.

With Fermanagh having no Masters side, McGrath was entitled to play for another county who do play in the Masters competition, and it was another Ederney man who enticed him across the county border to pull on the Red Hands jersey.

“Joe Leonard is part of the Tyrone Masters management and he won the Championship with Ederney in ‘68 but now lives in Castlederg.

“He kept at me this last couple of years and I could have played last year but it clashed with championship but he kept the pressure on and I met him one day and the next thing I was added to the Tyrone Masters group without knowing about it!

“I ended up going out and giving it a go and once I commit to something I see it out, and I’m glad I did.

“I’m still a Fermanagh man and that’s never going to change but with Fermanagh having no Masters team I could play for Tyrone and the players all made me feel very welcome,” said McGrath.

And McGrath says that the competition helped him regain enjoyment for the game at a time when he wasn’t enjoying it.

“I enjoyed it. I’ll be honest, it brought a wee bit more enjoyment back to football for me because I wasn’t enjoying the football at the time.

“Yes you want to win and that helps the enjoyment, but it was about going out and playing football with freedom and enjoying it, like you were a youngster again. Obviously, there are structures in place, and you have to do it the right way, but if you make a mistake you move on and there is not a lot of analysing of it. I enjoyed that,” he said.

There was also a competitive edge to it with both Tyrone and Dublin going all out for the win on Saturday.

“We had played Dublin in our first game and I thought it was intense enough but there was a big lift from that game to the final.

“The quality of both teams improved massively over that period team.

“On Saturday it was very competitive, neither side wanted to lose. You had Dennis Bastick using the fists and you could have got a clip handy enough but once it was over the hands were shaken and the chat was going,” laughed McGrath.

After a tough game on Friday night, the last thing McGrath needed was extra time on Saturday but he got through it to help Tyrone to the title.

“I was tired, I made a couple of runs in the second half and I found it in the legs and I was tired in extra time and I was nearly looking to the line to put my hand up to come off!

“Look, it was good but I had sore legs on Sunday,” he added.