That's the positive part. Even though sitting here after a match yesterday it's not fully alive by any means. Taking up a new sport at 37 is not always wise but taking up the fastest field sport in the world that involves huge amounts of skill is even less so.
I'm hanging in there. Unlike a lot of our panel that has pulled up with injury for now. We started the first day with 15 players on field and 13 subs.
By the third match yesterday we had 13 fit players and six that were about 80%, myself included after injuring my leg in training. I hadn't even planned on togging out for the game but was just going to do water boy and stay on the sideline.
That changed when I met the coach and he said to put get dressed just in case but it was very unlikely that I would have to come off the bench.
I was injured and the rain was pissing down all day yesterday so i wasn't 100% pleased to be out warming up instead of in the dug out like I had planned but you do what the coach asks.
Then towards the end of the warm up has came over again and said that one of the lads starting was running late and would i start the match and see how long I could go for. Bollix him any way. My leg held up through the warm up so i had to agree and hope it lasted for a while without pulling anything else in my calf.
Thankfully the las I was marking didn't like running half as much as the one last week. A speedy 21 year old who could play as well. I spend that game chasing shadows until they swapped me off him. In a battle between a fit 21 year old and an unfit 37 year old there could only be one winner.
Their whole team was very young for this level and they could run all day. We found out that their oldest player was 33 while our average age was probably 37/38. We still managed a draw in that game with better skills and tougher players.
A great draw in the circumstances.
We even had a proper photographer at this match so there were a few hundred photos but I'll just pick the few where i look like i'm doing something useful.
That was from the drawn game last week. Yesterday we won 4-13 to 1-9 for a 13 point victory which should put us third in the group with two matches left to play and a place in the quarter finals on offer if we can win both. It will be interesting to see how the other group results go but we have a must win match again this Sunday so hopefully we have enough players fit and healthy to be competitive.
I'm stiff, sore and tired today but it was great to win the match and have a few pints afterwards in the local pub which is what the game is all about.
