STANDING ON THE CUSP OF HISTORY
Chin primed for Wexford’s big day
IT’S not difficult to pinpoint the most significant moment of the journey which has taken Wexford hurlers to Croke Park. Fifty-six minutes had elapsed in the dramatic Leinster semi-final at Wexford Park when TJ Reid stitched a penalty into the top corner.
Out of nowhere, the Cats were a single point behind and had the smell of blood in their nostrils. With all the momentum against his team, Lee Chin stood tallest of all.
The Wexford powerhouse strained every sinew to pluck Mark Fanning’s puck-out from the sky and clipped over an inspirational point to put his team back on track. It symbolised what their skipper gives his team and why he has been the defining figure of their sensational summer.
‘Any man that is standing beneath a ball, their objective is to win it,’ Chin shrugs, when asked to re-visit that point last week. ‘I fancy myself under a high ball in most games I play and I knew that something needed to happen after that goal went in.
‘I thought that if nothing happened in this next play, if we didn’t get the next score, we could get turned over. We needed to win the next ball because if Kilkenny had won the ball and gone down and popped one over, they could have just taken over.’
He explains it simply but, at the time, it changed the whole complexion of the game. Some scores are worth more than just their value on the scoreboard – and that was one.
Even though Chin’s stunning second-half display drove his team home, he hasn’t been content to take the compliments and back slapping which has followed.
‘Since the Kilkenny game, I have been getting a lot of praise but for myself, I just felt that I did what I had to do. I wasn’t overly happy with my first-half performance, I only had five or six possessions. I didn’t have a big impact as I wasn’t getting on the ball enough.
‘In the second-half I came into my own. The lads around me were phenonomanal on the day. I think our backs only conceded 1-4 from play, they deserve massive credit for that. And look the ball came down my way a couple of times and I caught a few balls out of the air.
‘But far as saying was it my best performance for Wexford so far, I think in patches it probably was but as a whole, maybe not.’
Still, if Wexford are to cause another shock this Sunday, they will look to Chin for inspiration. It’s seems a little strange that so much of the Slaneyside hopes rest on his shoulders as he was a latecomer to the sport and didn’t even pick up a hurl until he was almost 10.
‘These days, I know a lot of kids pick up a hurl at four or five years of age, maybe even earlier. But I was brought up in the town and there was everything going, rugby balls, soccer balls, footballs and tennis balls all playing around. It just took me a while to figure out what I wanted to play.
‘And most of the friends that I grew up with weren’t that mad into hurling so it just took me a little bit longer to find it. When I got involved with my club I was introduced to a totally different community and atmosphere and that drove me on.’
And even though he took the game up late, he took to it seamlessly – once he learned the basic skills. ‘For the first couple of weeks I would have been behind them but in terms of athleticism, maybe I was a little bit above them. I was pretty small for my age back then but I could move and that is what the coaches like.
‘I had the hurl in my hand most days and listened to the coaches and once I did that I started picking up the fundamental skills of the game.’
It didn’t take Chin long to develop a passion for Wexford hurling. He was 13 when the
I wasn’t overly happy with my performance
county last won a Leinster title, in 2004, and he remembers being part of a group of bositerious supporters in the Davin Stand.
‘We were right in the corner of the top tier, with a big bunch of my own family. All the bottom was covered but there was hardly anybody up that far. I remember Hopper McGrath getting the last score of the game. Damien Fitzhenry gave an exhibition in the goal that day too. Great memories.’
And now they are giving Wexford people more to savour. ‘We have had small bits of success over the last few years, hints of a break-through. I wouldn’t say we are used to the feeling at the moment but you could understand why the people of Wexford are the way they are and the excitement they are bringing to the table.
‘We’re just delighted that we can provide that for them. We haven’t had that much success over the last few years and we’re just delighted that we can give them a day out again in Croke Park for a Leinster final. Hopefully we can send them home smiling too.’
With Chin as the beating heart of Davy Fitzgerald’s team, there is a sense that anything will be possible for Wexford this weekend.
Hopefully we will be able to send our fans home smiling