It was the noise that first grabbed hold of Jason Forde, commanding his full focus and attention.
He was thrown in for his Championship debut against Kilkenny in a 2013 qualifier at Nowlan Park and was struck by the atmosphere.
Forde said: “It was just the noise of it, I hadn’t experienced anything like that noise that you could compare it to.”
It’ll probably be the same today at Croke Park. Fever pitch. Six years on from that debut, Forde is older and wiser and reckons he’ll relish the occasion. And why shouldn’t he? He was part of a Tipp side that showed remarkable character to come from five down, and a man down, to beat Wexford in the semi-finals.
Forde said: “I’d be most proud of the way we reacted.
“Nobody went in and started roaring and shouting at the referee or anything like that, getting sidetracked.
“All we did was say to ourselves, ‘Look, this is what has happened, this is what we have been dealt with, let’s get on with it’.
“I think every time a setback happened we actually responded, be it with a point or a big play. I know Ronan made a big catch, things like that.
“We should be happy with the way we responded to setbacks because those are going to happen in matches, particularly big ones like this.”
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