‘Brick’ Walsh’s borderline illegal method of winning frees is genius stuff

Michael 'Brick' Walsh is the master of drawing a foul, and the master was at his tactful best on Sunday.

He's not the only hurler who can pull the wool over referees' and opponents' eyes alike, and he certainly won't be the last, but there's nobody around who has mastered the art quite like 'Brick' has. It's a technique that is practiced by many hurlers whereby they use their hurl to their own sly advantage. It happens as follows. A hurler is running with the ball in the direction of a tackler. The man in possession keeps hold of the ball and runs with his head up in the direction of his opponent. He reaches his opponent, who stands his ground, attempting to halt his progress. He raises his arm and puts his hurl over his opponents shoulder. At this stage, the man in possession has the momentum, and this momentum carries him, and his arm over the head of his tackler. He then uses his arm and hand to get a grip of the man facing him, and drags him down to the ground. He then makes a little lunge, or dive, whichever you'll have, towards the ground. At this stage, it looks to many, and this is the crucial part, that he is innocently trying to progress past his tackler, that raising his arms was a natural action. In reality, he's just manipulating his upper body so that his opponent is being taken back with him, and in the lunge, the follow through, the innocent and baffled opponent is brought to the ground with him. The attacking genius makes a meal out of the dive. Free won. Michael 'Brick' Walsh gave a cold-blooded exhibition of this on Sunday. The 34-year-old Waterford man has mastered the art to such an extent that he is prepared, and is well able to do it, even when a man is tackling him from behind. Watch Walsh's fore-arm bend around Rory O'Connor's here, that is he can jump to the ground and bring O'Connor down on top of him. Crucially, the Waterford man is now in control of O'Connor. Waterford's half forward is using his arm to his maximum, pulling and dragging the young O'Connor down with him, in the slyest manner possible. It's all part of his master plan of making a lunge to the ground and making it appear like O'Connor has jumped on his back. Oh so canny. He was making such use of his hurl and arms, that he sent O'Connor's weapon flying. Though, this wasn't the first time the Stradbally club man performed the action, it was the most obvious to see. The 34-year-old won five bloody frees in the first 21 minutes of the game, and for four of these five frees, this wily old tactic was to be seen. He was at it as early as the 43rd second, with Willie Devereux getting caught. In fairness, the corner back was a little bit high in his tackle here, but Walsh was making sure. He caught Lee Chin out, this time with his left arm, clearly getting a grip of the Wexford man's tackling arm. Genius. Walsh is so adaptable, that he can even do it on his blindside, seen here with Devereux again getting caught out, as Brick angles his body so he can tug the right arm down with him.