RTÉ hurling analyst Jackie Tyrrell believes that Jake Morris is the heir apparent to Lar Corbett's goal-scoring throne after his wonderful hat-trick downed Waterford in Saturday’s Allianz Hurling League clash at Semple Stadium.
The Thurles man retired in 2015 with a reputation as one of the game’s greatest ever goal scorers, tcopper-fastened by his famous hat-trick in the 2010 All-Ireland final win over Kilkenny.
On Saturday night, Morris became the first player to strike a hat-trick of league goals for Tipperary against the Déise since 1965 while he had already raised green flags in the victories over Kilkenny and Laois.
"I thought it was very obvious, the one where Dan McCormack broke through and could have easily tagged a point and he just took it the extra couple of steps and passed it into Jake Morris," Tyrrell, who marked Corbett in his Kilkenny days, told the RTÉ GAA Podcast.
"Is the resemblance between him and Lar Corbett uncanny? From being left hand on top, yellow helmet, the way they hit the ball - they’re just finishers.
"I think Jake just needs to be positioned up top, keep him up there. He’s electric, he’s pacy, dovetail him with Jason Forde and hopefully Seamus Callanan, who will be back.
"This guy is a finisher. Five goals already this year and it is a trait of Liam Cahill. We’ve seen it with Waterford, they do like to run the ball down the throat of the defence and if there’s a sniff of a goal he has no problem at all taking it on."
Tipperary’s goal threat has not been limited to just Morris this season, however, with 10 goals in all scored across their four league games to date.
They had raised just one green flag at the same stage last year and Tyrrell said that other sides will have noted their more predatory instincts in front of goal.
"Their behaviour is different to the norm," said the Kilkenny great.
"Even individually as a corner-back, if you’re marking a forward who likes to take the point you can nearly step up a little higher and push and press him a little higher.
"If you have a Jake Morris you nearly take a step back because this guy will take you on and has the legs to burn you.
"It alters your approach and a team that scores goals, and you know they score goals... I always found Galway were great to score goals against us and if they did it almost shook you, 'they’re after getting us again.’
"If a team is targeting goals and they score goals I think mentally it can knock you a bit, ‘here we go again, these lads are able to get goals on us.’
"You’d think that Tipperary aren’t pacy but they’re able to get runners in, I thought that was very obvious [against Waterford].
"There’s a new type of Tipp player, the Alan Tynans of this world. They’re just pacy, athletic. Conor Stakelum running from midfield, Noel McGrath seems to have got another kick in his legs, he was very athletic at the weekend I thought as well. [Patrick] ‘Bonner’ Maher just offers something completely different in there.
"I think they’ll ask a lot of different questions within that attack and you've Jason Forde coming on the last 20 minutes and he just snaps over five or six points."
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