Forde is enjoying a new lease of life

By Shane Brophy

Now an elder on the panel, Jason Forde is enjoying a new lease of life with Tipperary this season.

The Silvermines clubman, like many of his teammates, was off the pace last year, not helped by having surgery on a thumb injury which saw him miss much of the National League and as such his sharpness suffered, including his free-taking which was usually his calling card.

With the dead-ball duties handed to Darragh McCarthy this year, Forde has shown immense leadership, not feeling sorry for himself, and arguably has been Tipperary’s most consistent forward in the championship, including in the heavy loss to Cork.

And it’s those younger players that have reinvigorated the likes of Forde in this campaign.

“They bring no baggage and are mad for hurling,” he said speaking to RTE after Saturday’s win over Galway.

“If Darragh McCarthy could stay in the field for the whole day he would. That is the type of lad he is, and the other two lads are the same.

“As well as that, they have made sure lads are looking over their shoulder early in the year too. A lot of us didn’t get a huge amount of game time in the league, and that drives you to up your standards as well, to make sure you are in the first fifteen.

“That all feeds into it as well, it is really healthy to have big competition there and I guarantee you the team will probably change again for two weeks time.”

Forde admitted it was “massive” to be back in an All-Ireland semi-final for the first time since 2019 when they went onto win the Liam MacCarthy Cup, and reflected on how and why Tipp’s fortunes have changed massively this season.

“It’s probably a range of things,” he said.

“2023 was Liam’s first year. Any management team in their first year bar an exception is a bedding in period.

“We probably got a few things wrong last year. Liam has been open enough admitting that. We weren’t as fit as what we are this year.

“Then the youth that has come in, Darragh, Sam, Oisin, the way they approach things, they have no baggage, are coming off the back of winning an under 20, they love training and love hurling, and we are all feeding off that energy.”

Donal Og Cusack asked Forde about his proficiency from line-balls, converting four from four in the championship so far.

“Most teams are kind of gone away from it now. It is seen as if you are giving up possession by not working it short,” Forde continued.

“It’s funny, before the Waterford game, we were working on it in training that if we got a sideline how we were going to approach it, but in that game, John (McGrath) gave me the ball and I fired two over and they went over so since the boys (management) have said, have at it, if you fancy it, go for it.”

For much of the first half on Saturday, it was the Forde and John McGrath show in the full forward line, with the duo scoring seven points from play between them, dove-tailing superbly in terms of being aware of where eachother were, but also where the space was to get into scoring positions.

“Because Galway were working more of their puckouts short, we were tracking out and you find yourself naturally out the field, and then it is about tracking back in, so the boys have an outlet ball to hit,” he revealed.

“Liam (Cahill) always talks about hurling with instinct. He is not going to take the instinct out of a player which is great.

“Obviously we have structures and things that we have to work to as well.”

A lot of the reason the Tipperary forwards are in such good form is the competition there is within the squad to make the starting fifteen, but Forde also complimented those that have to start from the bench, ready, willing, and able to come on and make a positive contribution for the team.

“The bench is massive,” Forde continued.

“Oisin (O’Donoghue) is only 19, he still has another year under 20. He is going to be a serious players going forward. That is two goals off the bench for him, so we are getting impact there.

“Noel (McGrath) just brings a cool head to it. He has all the experience in the world and if you hear all our players talking, they always talk about Noel being a big driver in our group. He is a massive figure, he just comes on, calms the whole thing down.

“There is not too many players who would have given the pass for Oisin’s goal after coming on, they would have been thinking about getting their own score whereas that is never the case with Noel.”

Forde’s experience of playing in Croke Park and against Kilkenny, going back to the 2014 All-Ireland final and replay, be important in their preparation over the next two weeks to ensure the entire panel are ready to take their chance and help get Tipperary back to an All-Ireland final.

“The big aim was to get back to Croke Park this year,” Forde revealed.

“These younger players need to get there and experience that. A lot of that team have never played in Croke Park before with the under 20 matches being in Nowlan Park and different places.

“We’ll be relishing it, another two weeks, back to training on Tuesday and go as it as hard as we can.”