hard play
watercolour
21cmx 30cm
€
95.00
|
Tough men
watercolour 21cm x 30cm
€
95.00
Hurling is a hard game.
There are knocks, swipes and all sorts of contact during the run of play that are so fast that they're rarely seen from the sideline or from a stand or a seat. They're seen or felt though by the players. Not that you'd know. There's no rolling on the ground. There are no histrionics. When a player gets hurt, he's either well enough to carry on, and play effectively, or he goes off. Cards are issued to miscreants who flout the rules. Sometimes they get away with sly digs and covert tricks that interfere with another player's performance. Reputations can be made or destroyed in a day. Some men are known as 'hard players', some as 'tough but fair', others as 'sound', which usually means he's straight and fair, but cross him at your peril. Like any game of physical contact, there are times when a collision, a wild swipe, with no malice, or a burst of steely determination can result in injury. Most games are played in a competitive if determined manner. Injuries big or small are thought of as occupational hazards. And most players respect opponents as other humans doing what they do, and treat the opposing team members in a way they'd expect to be treated. |
Hustling
16cm x 12 cm appprox watercolour/ink
€
95.00
|
Running in
20cm x 29cm approx watercolour/ink
€
95.00
|
The back lines in the field don't generally get to score in the course of a game. That's changing now with the technology of the sliotars and the hurls, and of course the skills of the players, as they adapt to modern times.
But apart from the hugely talented individuals who make names for themselves in the back positions, there are numbers of stalwarts; hard, tough, resilient individuals in the game who don't necessarily make the big catches, stop the star forwards in their tracks, or blind everyone with their flashes of brilliance every Sunday.
But they're there. And the rest of the team rely on them as much as they do the
free-scoring frontline. They're there in the wet and the fine, in the depths of January as they are in the full colour of summer. They're there when the chips are down, there are minutes left in a game, and a season hangs in the balance. Then by their very presence, their dogged determination, their constancy and stability, their courageous and selfless consistency, they glue the team, send shockwaves of belief up through the pitch, and often save the day.
You won't hear too much about them. And their pictures aren't all over the papers. They frequently leave the pitch to a pat on the back and a vague "well done".
But ask the lads.
The boys and the men who've been out there with them, played the game , who know, really know, what went on in the final 20 minutes. You'll get a different story about a man of the backs.
A legend of Wexford hurling.
A man who represented the county with unfaltering courage, will and tenacity, and then proceeded to guide a wavering Wexford hurling squad to self belief.
He laid the foundation for the meteoric rise of Wexford hurling again under the guidance of Davy Fitzgerald.
The contribution that he and so many others like him in the county make must be remembered. They not only apply their skills and time and effort to the practicalities, they also show the way, perpetuate the rise, momentum and persistence in the county.
It goes on all the time, unmarked, unacknowledged, but never unrewarded.
For such is their dedication and generosity of character that their reward is in the benefits to others.
True heroes.
