Jason Forde excited by Tipperary youth ahead of the start of the 2024 season

Tipperary hurler Jason Forde believes that the new blood in the senior hurling panel is ready to take Tipperary forward in 2024 and beyond.

Speaking at the official Co-op Superstores Munster Hurling League 2024 launch at Co-op Superstores Raheen on Monday, the Silvermines ace said that the panel has undergone a huge transition in recent years and that the younger players are ready to step into the void left by some experienced campaigners who have called it a day.

“You wouldn’t feel it but over the last couple of years, the panel has been changing,” he conceded.

“Even times when I’ve been talking to a couple of the older lads like Dan and Ronan, you can see how it changes seeing the younger faces around the camp.”

Training has been back in full flow for Liam Cahill’s charges for the past month or so, and with plenty of new faces being given the chance to impress in numerous development challenge matches in recent weeks, Forde said there is an excitement about the youth coming into the fray and the positivity that it brings.

“There is a good buzz with the newer lads. I think we need to show a bit of patience with them and the way it is gone these days, you do need two or three years to get up to the physicality of intercounty hurling in terms of getting the strength and conditioning on board. They’ll all add a new element to the group and I think young players like that will just go for it and they won’t have any fear,” he added.

The climax of Tipperary’s 2023 campaign after such a good start and resurgence is still raw for a lot of Tipp supporters, and after having plenty of time to reflect on the year, Forde said: “You would have been going over it in your head for the last couple of months,” he said.

“It is hard to put the finger on one thing that you could point to as the reason why, but it was the accumulation of three very tough games before going very flat against Waterford.

“We found it hard to pick it up again after that.

“If you played to your full potential and you were beaten you can say fair enough, but it was the fact that there is much more in us and we wouldn’t be happy with the performance in either of the games against Waterford and Galway, that is the thing that sticks with you as you need to produce the best performances on the biggest days.

“Those first three championship games were huge, we were right in it in all of them which is a testament to the work we had done.

“For the Waterford game we had a couple of injuries, Cathal Barrett went down against Limerick, Jake Morris was out, so those things didn’t work in our favour either.

“Then you have a lot of lads in their first championship season as well so having played three hard weeks going into the final game, you can look at all those things and make excuses, we just didn’t get to the level we needed to, so we need to address that going into the New Year.”

This year’s round-robin Munster championship, as usual, has the look of a really intriguing campaign, with Tipperary getting their championship season underway in the toughest possible way against All-Ireland champions Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds.

It will be Limerick’s second game in a week as they get their championship underway against Clare in Ennis the week previous, and Forde views it as a big opportunity rather than a raw draw looking ahead to the action.

“That’s the way we need to be looking at it (a huge opportunity). We went toe to toe with them last year in Thurles and one or two little things might have turned the result further in our direction as well.

“Every game in Munster is massive though.

“You can’t pinpoint any game and say that that is THE one. Every game is huge and even the way the results went last year when we went down and beat Clare the first day, Clare then went on and beat Limerick, we drew with Limerick, and Cork were only a point away from Limerick by the end.

“So every game is going to be huge and we’re going to have to bring our best to every single game, but the way it is working out this year is breaking up the fixtures nicely too.”

On a personal level for Forde, unbelievably, he is going into his twelfth season in the senior ranks with Tipperary and with the recent raft of retirements in recent years, he has now become one of the senior players in camp but even so, he says he doesn’t feel any of the added pressure or responsibility that goes with it.

“I don’t know if there’d be more weight on my shoulders, there’s still enough of us there where there would be plenty of experience as well and he is raring to go with the new campaign.

“Even lads who might have played in their first season this year still had experience built up; the likes of Bryan O’Mara who was playing regularly at Fitzgibbon level. So I wouldn’t feel any more pressure than anyone else to be honest.

“I’m on the sideline myself running up and down blowing the lungs out of myself at the minute!

“Lads are seeing it as an opportunity that, if they do well in challenge games and the training games they will get a chance.

“I think Liam is right in what he’s doing to give lads opportunities and in fairness, they (Cahill and Mikey Bevans) went to an awful lot of club games during the year, so lads who were showing form are getting rewarded which is a good thing too.

“There won’t be any stone left unturned in terms of getting players together who are up to the level to play for Tipperary so lads are chomping at the bit, so once this Munster League gets going it’ll be another chance for lads to put up their hand,” he finished.