wolvesjr34
Morrow Super Collector
After readnig this I had to share it here. The combination of the determination and the coming together of two sides to make sure he went out with a bang... I dunno some may call it ridiculous... I call it the spirit of football... read on to know what I am rambling about....
From the Herald Sun
Dale Hirst: Stroke victim reaches 400
06 August 2007 Herald Sun
Sam Edmund
NO one has done it tougher than Dale Hirst to reach 400 footy games.
However they do it tough in Sandford. Have done for a long time.
Three years ago, fate handed the former timber mill worker a cruel twist that changed his life in the blink of an eye.
He was floored by a huge stroke that paralysed the right side of his body, choked his speech and kept him in a Melbourne hospital for five months.
The stroke, days after Hirst celebrated his 40th birthday, rocked the small town 310km west of Melbourne. One minute he was sitting in the back yard on a summer morning, the next his wife Ann was making the seven-hour round trip to the city each weekend to be by his bedside.
The two-time league best-and-fairest winner, captain-coach and a man who lived for footy, was stranded on 393 games.
It would have been all too easy for "Hirsty" to chuck in the towel, but giving up is not his style.
In a heart-warming triumph of human spirit, Hirst defied the odds to play his 400th game at the weekend when Sandford met Branxholme-Wallacedale in the South West District Football League.
He walked slowly through a banner with his daughters Madison, 13, and Remy, 10, by his side, using his good arm to acknowledge a guard of honour formed by both teams.
Sadly, the stroke has robbed him of virtually all form of athletic co-ordination.
His run and leap in the ruck had dominated opponents in leagues across Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.
He may struggle to get the words out these days, but behind the stutter lies a ferocious determination.
"A lot of people doubted me - when I told them I was going to play 400 games you could see the doubt in their eyes," Hirst, 43, smiled yesterday.
"But I made it. I was always going to get there. It felt really good being on the ground again."
Before Saturday's swansong, Hirst had been named in the Sandford reserves team six times this season. But while inching closer to his milestone, coach David "Humpa" Humphries sat him on the bench out of harm's way.
That changed on the weekend when he lined up in the forward pocket.
Sandford president Peter Jarrad and Branxholme-Wallacedale president Peter Robertson approached the umpires before the game.
"Dale had been so driven to get to the 400 that we thought there would have been nothing worse than him running out there and not getting a kick," Jarrad said.
The pair suggested to the men in white that it would be nice if they could arrange for Hirst to be able to put boot to ball.
"Their president, Peter Robertson, was very good about it," Jarrad said. "He said, 'I don't care if you have to pay 10 free kicks to get it down there - just do it'."
Ten minutes into the game the umpires started a chain of six frees that will go down as the most ridiculous ever awarded at the Branxholme-Wallacedale Recreation Reserve.
Opposition players, alert to what was happening, played along and shouted various obscenities to give away 50m penalties.
The ball ended up with Hirst, who slotted the goal from the goal square.
"When he kicked it, players from both teams ran to congratulate him, they were just so happy for him," Humphries said.
"It was very emotional."
For wife Ann the footy game was a proud moment.
"I felt that pleased for him because both teams recognised his dream," she said. "Football is what has kept him going.
"I could tell by the look on his face what Saturday did for him."
