The Jordan of... Hurling

MrJoeSoap

In our quest for international relevance, we scour the globe to bring you the legends of sports you've probably never heard of. Today, in light of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Mag EIC Gary Belsky's omission of hurling from his list of the 27 best sports, bow down to Brian Whelahan.

Birr Half-back Brian Whelahan is a living legend in the hurling community. What's hurling? Well it's lacrosse, field hockey and Gaelic football all rolled into one—yet somehow none of those things. Basically, we're not entirely sure. But we do know that Whelahan is the greatest player to ever swat the sliotar.

After coming up in Ireland's Offaly County's under-age system in the 1980s, Whelahan helped put his hometown, not known as a hotbed of hurling talent, on the proverbial map. He lead Birr to 11 county titles, including a five-peat between 1999 and 2003, and four All-Ireland club championships, a feat accomplished by only a handful of lucky hurley huckers.

A four-time All-Star, Whelahan was also named Texaco Hurler of the Year in 1994 and again in 1998—the first player to win the award twice—and was the only active player to be named to the Gaelic Athletic Association's (GAA) Hurling Team of the Millenium in 2000.

2008 will mark his 20th year with the Birr club but, according to the Irish Examiner, the 36-year-old captain doesn't look like he's ready to slow down.

"Obviously there's times when you're just not going to be able to keep up with the youngest of the players," Whelehan said of his level of conditioning. "But you do what you can and you push yourself to your own limits."

Isn't that what Jordan said about playing for the Wizards?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3265857

Stumbled across this in work today. Now, the guys a legend and all, but best ever? Touch overdramatic.

Anyway, what impression do people think the yanks have of the sport? Everytime I hear it explained its compared to lacrosse and field hockey, but other than the stick and ball combination I don't think they are fair comparisons. They are probably as close as you would get, for illustrative purposes, but I think it is a few notches above both in terms of speed and skill level.

Has anyone introduced American friends or relatives to the sport? What have they made of it?

aidan24326

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3265857

Stumbled across this in work today. Now, the guys a legend and all, but best ever? Touch overdramatic.

Anyway, what impression do people think the yanks have of the sport? Everytime I hear it explained its compared to lacrosse and field hockey, but other than the stick and ball combination I don't think they are fair comparisons. They are probably as close as you would get, for illustrative purposes, but I think it is a few notches above both in terms of speed and skill level.

Has anyone introduced American friends or relatives to the sport? What have they made of it?

I find foreigners are usually very surprised that it isn't more dangerous than it is. They expect to see heads being chopped off but I'd say it's a tribute to the skill level of the top players that serious injuries are rare at that level of the game.

Graham Taylor while manager of Watford showed his under-performing players a video of a championship hurling game and they were said to be amazed that it was an amateur sport given the level of commitment and the sheer intensity of it.

gucci

aidan24326 wrote: »

Graham Taylor while manager of Watford showed his under-performing players a video of a championship hurling game and they were said to be amazed that it was an amateur sport given the level of commitment and the sheer intensity of it.

Yes i believe it was a sports psychologist he hired that showed the video to the team, and asked the players to write down one word to describe what they seen on a card (which would probably be quite a challenge to most professional soccer players )
Anyways i think it was Munster final involving Clare, not sure of the year, many player wrote down words like passion, strength, guts, speed, etc and the psychologist observed it all and then revealed his own card saying "NOT PAID"

Mr. Incognito

asked the players to write down one word

revealed his own card saying "NOT PAID"

Jaysus I hope they didn't spend too much on a bloke that can't count.