Updated at 18.30
TIPPERARY’S FORMER U21 captain Jason Forde collected his first medal as a senior intercounty hurler last Sunday.
The Silvermines attacker scored two crucial second half points in the Munster final victory over Waterford and is now targeting further glory.
Forde, 21, has managed to nail down a starting place in Tipp’s championship team this summer and is now targeting an All-Ireland medal to go with his provincial prize.
“It’s important, that’s what you are playing for, to get medals,” he said.
“Over the last few years we have been getting to finals without getting medals out of them but when you come to the end of your career you are judged by that.
“So moral victories aren’t any good to us, we want silverware on the board so getting silverware is a big thing.”
Forde operated around the half forward line for Tipp and as well as bringing a scoring touch, he worked hard in the middle third battle ground.
“We knew coming into the game what Waterford were going to bring to it, the middle third of the field was going to be a key battle, there were so many bodies you had to put your body on the line and make sure our workrate was high.
“I think we achieved that to a certain degree.
Space was very much at a premium, a huge contrast to the semi-final victory over Limerick when Forde was one of the goalscorers.
“It did feel different because when you look up at the boys inside it is hard to find someone because there was such a wall there in front.
“Even getting on ball around the middle third is tough going but again you just have to put your body around and do something for the team.”
And Forde revealed that Tipp learned plenty from their Allianz League semi-final defeat against Waterford, enabling them to devise a gameplan to crack the Déise code.
“I don’t think we launched too much ball down on top of him (Waterford sweeper Tadhg de Búrca).
“Maybe for a period in the first half we reverted back to launching ball but at the start of the second half and near the end we played the ball through the channels a bit better.
“We found the men in space and the boys will put the ball over the bar all day if they are in space.”
One 0f the most satisfying aspects of Tipp’s win was their ability to grind out a result in a tight game.
And Forde believes that will stand the Premier County in good stead as they look ahead to the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork or Galway on 16 August.
“We like to think we can mix it as well. We feel we can play it both ways and I think we showed that.
“But we won’t be getting carried away either. We have five weeks to the next game and we are going to just knuckle down and take it one step at a time.”
