By Pat Nolan

Copyright irishmirror

Jason Forde doesn’t believe that Tipperary will stick rigidly with the sweeper system despite its stunning success in the All-Ireland final.

Tipp manager Liam Cahill pulled a rabbit from a hat when employing Bryan O’Mara as a seventh defender in the decider, something that Cork struggled to overcome as they collapsed dramatically in the second half to eventually suffer a 16-point defeat.

It came after the Rebels had made light work of the Premier in both the League final and Munster round robin, running in seven goals across both games, which they won by 10 and 15 points respectively.

With that in mind, Forde wasn’t taken aback when Cahill suggested the sweeper tactic ahead of the All-Ireland final, despite it being frowned upon, particularly in the traditional hurling counties.

“No, I wasn’t shocked, to be honest,” he said. “I suppose a lot of the Tipperary teams I’ve played on, I don’t think we’ve ever kind of gone with a plus-one ourselves.

“We’ve found ourselves in that situation a number of times where other teams have maybe deployed a sweeper and you end up with an extra back. For a lot of lads, it probably wasn’t anything new.

“Bryan O’Meara has played that role for UL for a good number of years and he’s well equipped to do it because he’s such an athlete being able to cover ground and stuff. So no, I wasn’t shocked with it.

“You saw that they opened us up for goals in the League final and in the Munster Championship so we had to do something to try and counteract that.

“Bryan played it superbly well. He covered off that side of the field and mopped up a lot of ball. I just think it was really clever from the lads.”

As it happens, Tipperary will open the defence of their All-Ireland title at home to Cork next year, though it’s not a given that they will stick to the sweeper formula.

Forde continued: “I suppose it’s horses for courses and you have to see what you’re coming up against.

“Liam did say, and it probably threw people off maybe in the week, that a Liam Cahill team never played with a plus-one. It’s just shrewd management and fair play to Liam for doing it. It wasn’t a pride thing with him that he’d never do something like that. He was seeing what’s the best way I can set up this team to be successful.

“Next year I’m sure it’ll revert back to 15 on 15 for most games. Again, it’s just whatever way you can work it to give yourself an advantage.”

Meanwhile, Forde, who turns 32 in December and is one of Tipp’s more experienced players, says he plans to make himself available to Cahill again next year.

“There’s obviously no decisions made yet. I suppose we’re in the middle of the

club championship and stuff like that but I’m sure I’ll be meeting with Liam in the next couple of weeks and yeah, look, you’d be obviously willing and hopefully able to go again.

“But I suppose that’s a conversation that you’d have to have with Liam and the management team and see but yeah, no, I’d definitely be raring to go for next year.”