Jason Forde on last year's 'shame' and how it inspired Tipp's turnaround

It was a remarkable performance and an exceptional second half from Tipperary, who outscored Cork 3-14 to 0-2.

The manner of Tipperary’s win, the win itself – are factors that were simply unthinkable 12 months ago, given how abysmal their Munster SHC campaign had been in 2024.

But that stark contrast, and questions over Jason Forde’s future made it all the more sweet after defeating Cork on Sunday.

“After the season finished [last year] you’re meeting a lot of people, and they’re kind of nearly [saying] ‘are you gonna bother coming back?’ that kind of thing,” he explained post-match. “Nearly writing you off, as if you were finished.

“I just said when I met Liam, that for you the year that we had and having been playing for Tipp for 13 seasons, having won All-Irelands, to leave it on that note just wouldn’t have felt right.

“And like that, you could see the glimmer of hope there that the younger players that were coming,” Forde said. “When I met Liam, you got a really good sense that there was going to be no stone left unturned to get the team back.

“You need a bit of luck in these situations, there’s nobody talking about winning All-Irelands, you’re just talking about putting pride back in the jersey, get out of Munster. Reconnect with the Tipperary supporters.

A lot of tough months [were] put down after that last year, but it just makes it all the bit sweeter. 

The gruelling months were worth it. Tipp are All-Ireland champions again. At Cork’s expense. But just what was it that changed with Liam Cahill’s third season in charge?

“The couple of younger lads that we’re after finding, exceptional players. Three players in Darragh [McCarthy], Sam [O’Farrell], and Oisín [O’Donoghue] that we didn’t have last year,” Forde remarked. “We just went back to the grindstone, we trained really hard.

“When it comes down to the last 10 minutes, we back that we have the legs. The boys coming off the bench to finish the job, it's a number of things.

“We were so hurt after last year.

“Tipp is obviously a mad hurling county, and a lot of us are living so close to the big towns, that’s where you’re going [and] you’re meeting people.

ASHAMED 

“Last year, I remember meeting Jake Morris a couple of weeks after it, and he was like ‘you’re nearly ashamed going around the place to show your face around’ because the manner, that we went out in,” he admitted. “We said it as a group all year, there’s nobody going to come and save us. We had to go back and put in the work, and drag ourselves out of it. Thank God we did.

“Munster is so tight and so hard to get out of. You’re targeting every game, but I suppose after that Clare game.

“The Tipp crowd that day, going into the stadium, cheers you off the bus. You’re starting to reconnect with the support, and to go down to Ennis – it’s a really tough place to go.

“We talked about it during the week, if we were in this game, five or six points in it at half time, we’d give ourselves a great shout.

Cork have been blitzing teams all year, so it was really important to stay in that game.

“[We’re] a battle hardened team, we’ve come through a lot of tight results. Coming out of Munster first of all, and the last day against Kilkenny. So we backed ourselves coming down the home straight.”