“Every day when I wake up the hurl is right in the corner of the room. It’s the first thing I see when I wake up and it’s the last thing I see when I go to sleep.”
Lee Chin and Davy Fitzgerald are a match made in heaven.
The Wexford man eats, breathes and sleeps hurling. When he does allow himself to sleep, that is, he dreams hurling. When he awakes, he dreams hurling.
It wasn’t that difficult a decision for him to turn down the opportunity to play in Wexford Youths’ final League of Ireland game so he could instead attend the All-Stars banquet. He’s a GAA man to the very core after all and when he decided to help out the soccer club for five or six weeks, he made it clear that nothing would interfere with his Gaelic commitments.
“I’ve seen a lot of comments that came in my way after I decided to go to the All-Stars,” Chin told SportsJOE last week.
“For me, I worked very hard throughout the year – pretty much the whole year – I gave up my whole life to give Wexford hurling my time and my effort.
“Then I get an All-Star nomination and, for me, it means a lot. For my family, for my club, my county, it means everything and especially for me on a personal note too. I was honoured.
“To give up that night to go to a soccer game – something I’ve been involved with for the last five or six weeks – it didn’t really add up.”
Lee Chin doesn't get what the big deal is https://t.co/vNkOpPJTfN
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 3, 2016
The whole time, in fact, Wexford GAA was still Chin’s priority. He was helping his mates with the Youths, but he did it at a risk. He risked his hurling.
“Going to play for Wexford Youths, I sacrificed myself,” Chin said. “I put myself out there to possibly get injured in a game that I’m not really used to anymore.
“I could’ve gotten injured and I could’ve missed out on the year with Wexford in 2017. Now, in saying that, I could be injured in the first training session with Wexford but at least I’m doing it for something I love.
“If I had gotten injured in any of those soccer games or any of those training sessions with Wexford Youths, I’d probably never have forgiven myself.”
That’s Lee Chin’s mentality. It’s more than that. That’s his being. It’s always hurling, everything comes back to it and anything else outside of it is just that, outside.
He’ll get on well with Davy Fitzgerald so…
Wexford will be the latest beneficiaries of that passion of the Clare man and Lee Chin has already felt it.
Davy Fitzgerald has recalled Rathnure hurler Jack Guiney into the county squad and has been assembling his backroom team in the meantime. Keith Rossiter and PJ Ryan join the Clare man at the helm along with JJ Doyle, Paraic Fanning and Seoirse Bulfin.
They’ve met the squad, they did it last week, and Lee Chin won’t forget that encounter in a hurry. He’s already sold on Davy Fitzgerald. He’s in.
“Am I looking forward to it? Oh yeah. Of course. Of course,” you could almost see the glint in his eyes even through the phone.
“The man himself, he’s achieved a lot throughout his own career and even in the last few years in his management roles with Waterford and Clare.
“It’s very exciting, very exciting times.
“We met with him last week, had a meeting and the man’s passion and enthusiasm… I’ve never experienced that before. I’m really, really looking forward to working with him.”
Bring on 2017.
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