Backman
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.
