Roaming role helps Jake Morris tick consistency box

LEARNING ALL THE TIME: Jake Morris. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

Where did the years go?

All of a sudden it’s Jake Morris’s eighth senior season but this one, he reckons, is his best yet.

“It probably has been, to be fair,” says Tipperary’s 26-year-old vice-captain, who has scored 22 points in this championship. “It has probably been my most consistent. There were a couple of tough years, there is no point saying we didn’t, and I did in particular. 

“It has helped in the way that they team is performing, it’s not focused on any individual, it is the collective with everyone chipping in. Andrew Ormond didn’t score against Kilkenny but was still serious, winning a couple of frees near the end.” 

Into his second year as Ronan Maher’s deputy, the Nenagh Éire Óg man is more acquainted in the role. He's also been willing to embrace change. At the start of the season, Liam Cahill and Mikey Bevans came to him with their plan to reposition him in the half-forward line. 

“I am enjoying it out there but also being able to go back inside as well. There is a bit more freedom to get on the ball and use your legs a bit more than inside where you could be waiting five or 10 minutes for a ball to come in and you have to make hay with it.

“Just being involved in the game more is helping my game. It’s a really good team to be playing in, we work really hard for each other with different lads chipping in all the time and a bench that is making a serious impact when they are needed to.” 

And the occasion spell inside appeals to Morris too. 

“Historically, Tipperary have always had forwards rotating, and it’s really what you have to because it is easier to get a handle on a fella when you stay in one position all game. Moving around and taking a lad into different positions, you find yourself on ball in different places.

“It makes our team tick a little better when we are rotating, especially with Darragh [McCarthy] going out to take frees, we like to make sure we set up well, so someone slips into the full-forward line to cover him.” 

Morris has a fine scoring record against Cork going back to his underage days. The unwritten agreement between the counties that hurling will be played helps, he believes.

“I probably have but it’s down to the free-flowing, good games of hurling. Cork have some serious forwards and I am sure some of their forwards like to play us as well. Alan [Connolly] in particular has gotten good scores against us over the last couple of years. 

"It’s probably the way games go but we are looking forward to taking them on again.” 

They return to Croke Park heartened by how they defied the numerical odds against Kilkenny last Sunday week. “It was really satisfying but that is down to the hard work the group has put in all year long, how honest it is.

“We have been doing that all year. Even when we went down to 14 men in Cork, we still stayed trying and stayed playing to the final whistle. That is something we were conscious of since the start of the year that no matter how a game is going, we stay hurling to the final whistle. It is a good trait for a team to have.” 

The Kilkenny result was a fifth straight SHC win for Tipperary, the first time they have put together that string of results in a season since 2016. 

The players are getting out what they’re putting in, says Morris. 

“We have full belief in our group and management team. We know we have top hurlers in the county, with the 20s winning the All-Ireland, and the minors winning the All-Ireland last year, there are serious hurlers in Tipperary.

“It was really about getting the hard work done in the winter months and coming in under the radar, taking it game by game through the league, picking up a bit of momentum and it’s really important what a few wins can do for a team and the morale of the whole county, the people are getting back behind us.

“The support at the semi-final was absolutely phenomenal. Coming up on the bus we knew we would have massive support, three or four to one I’d say easily.” 

That ratio will be different on Sunday but Tipperary’s performance needn’t be.