by John Condon
It takes a while to learn it, but after a few years immersed in the language you eventually start to pick it up. Let’s look at a few stock phrases in the wink and nudge Hurling lexicon.
“Let it flow!”: this is a command to referees not to enforce the rules of the sport. The flow is generally only desired by supporters of the dirtier team.
“Intensity”: a catch-all word for high energy fouling. Most often this means to surround the player who has the ball, pull at his arms, drag him, and hold his wrists for periods just short enough that the referee could not consistently give the free.
“Physicality”: very similar to “intensity”, possibly with some undertones of wrestling thrown in.
“Bottle him up”: surround the player with the ball, then block and hold him with your arms and hands. Imagine zombies on steroids who don’t want to eat you, but just want to tie up your arms so you can’t play hurling.
“Passionate” as in “he’s awfully passionate so he is” , See Below
“Swarm”: the plural word for a group of hurlers, but only relevant in recent times.
“Honesty”: in the modern game, this most often means cheating, and well, dishonesty.
“Pull on it!!”: this is now obsolete, not used much anymore. In the modern language it might be applied to pulling back a players shoulders or hips as he tries to move, but it hasn’t been heard in years.
“Rules”: this is a word used only by sour losers in hurling today. The people who refer to the rules of the game invariably are not tough enough or strong enough to handle the modern game. Some people might also get very uncomfortable about the idea that the sport is not played in line with its own rule set, so be a gent/lady and don’t mention this word too much.
“Learnings” a relatively new one but beloved of Lads who want to sound smarter than the average with their “Lessons”, A “deep dive” cant be too far away.
Anyone have any other good ones, we would love to hear them