Forde fills his boots as Maher assists

4-58 in two games, 4-48 of that from play, the Tipperary forwards have certainly made up for lost time in terms of their early championship exit in 2018 by making the Cork and Waterford defenses look very poor indeed so far.

A week on from John O'Dwyer leading the way, last Sunday it was Jason Forde to was the star man with 1-9, 1-5 from play, with his first point on sixteen seconds setting the tempo and answering those who said Tipp had to back up their win over Cork to be taken seriously.

“It was hugely important,” admitted Jason Forde over following up the Cork performance with another consistent display.

“We know how tight this Munster championship is going to be. Seeing it last year, it's a stark contrast between the way we started last years championship and this so very game is going to be important and it's important we backed up that performance today.”

Eight different scorers contributed to the 32 scores with Forde adding there is no real secret to why the scores have flowed so easily so far.

“It's through movement and fella's working with eachother,” he said.

“We are getting scores from different players and we had a good spread of scores again today.

“It has just seemed to click over the last two days.”

Patrick Maher failed to get on the scoresheet but the centre forward produced another hugely effective 69 minutes before he was called ashore to great acclaim for the fans.

However, his impact was marked as it was his involvement which led to Conor Gleeson being sent off before half time with Maher in full flow while it was his great touch and pass which began the move which led to Jason Forde's goal which opened the game up for Tipperary.

“We got our flow back, which was very positive,” he said after Waterford had made things difficult for Tipperary early in the second half.

“Lads are just really enjoying their hurling at the moment, and you could see that out there.

“Lads have a bit of freedom in them and freedom in the way they play, and there’s just real enjoyment in there at the moment.

“The panel itself is really competitive at the moment, you seen the subs coming in there today, huge impacts getting on ball and finishing off the job for us, which is huge. There’s a really competitive panel there at the moment and we are really driving each other on, which is important.”

 

To read more, pick up a copy of this weeks Nenagh Guardian locally or subscribe to our e-paper to access it online each Wednesday.