What more could a man possibly do?
To give it all, to do nothing wrong, but to still come out on the losing side, how sick could you be?
Willie Hyland and his comrades took to O’Moore Park, Portlaoise with the aim of bringing the county senior hurling title back to Clough Ballacolla, back to where they feel it belongs.
He left it all out there, he did everything he possibly could, but still left empty-handed and found himself and his club mates condemned to a winter of regret, wonder and slogging.
The dream died, the team died, but Hyland certainly died with his boots on.
The Laois county final was a thriller, between two sides going at it hammer and tongs from the word go. That’s the thing about Laois hurling, they take no prisoners and if you’re going to win a ball there, by God you’ll earn it.
Hyland and his men were nip and tuck with opponents Camross throughout, and with just three minutes to play there was nothing separating the two sides.
Camross looked the better, more balanced team, but they were up against an inspired Hyland who wasn’t taking no for an answer. On the biggest stage of all he notched 0-15, which came from sidelines, from frees and from play.
That’s some going on any day, and would be enough to win many a game on its own, and when it was all said and done, you’d have to feel for Hyland who must have been left wondering how he was in the losing dressing room after that.
That’s a point every four minutes from the full forward, who was unflappable from frees – nothcing nine, deadly from open play – raising five white flags, and throwing a sideline into the mix for good measure, too.
The former Laois senior star is an extremely powerful, versatile performer and represented his county with distinction during his 8-year career with them.
The big man for the big occasion, but in the end, they went down. Mark Dowling rifled a bullet stroke to the net in added time to put four points between the sides in added time, and with that the dream looked over.
Stephen Bergin responded with a bullet goal to put just one between the sides, but in the end Camross held out for victory, and fair play to them because they deserved it.
Sport is cruel, sport is tough and Hyland knows all about that today.
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