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Published 14:08 28 Feb 2018 GMT
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"Come back with your shield, or on it."
After two All-Ireland final losses, Patsy Bradley captained his club Slaughtneil this season and led them to their third Ulster title in their history. On Saturday night, he stormed out in Portlaoise, showing the way for his comrades who, once again, although they were on the back foot and looking like they were going down, fought back and kept on fighting.
When you look at photographers' photos after a game, they can always give you a fair idea of what sort of battle each player had. Were they in cruise control, were they even in control at all or were they in the wars, bang smack in the middle of it all.
There were three action shots of Patsy Bradley on Sportsfile after that semi-final defeat to Nemo Rangers and they encapsulated that stubbornness that allows him to go to some place where he's not just willing but almost psychopathically thrilled to transform his body into a human sacrifice for the cause.
Patsy Bradley's not a man who would stop for too many interviews. He'd politely smile and nervously laugh and try to be as nice as possible about brushing you off but, to be honest, anyone who's even caught a glimpse of him in the heat of battle wouldn't need any words from him because all the talking he needs to do, he does it on the pitch and he does it with his actions.
Mary K Burke, one of the finest photographers in the GAA, has this unbelievable ability to capture the entire story with one single shot. A picture of her's would tell you everything you need to know, not just about the game or its sub plots, but about a person's whole character too.
Maybe when a club comes as passionate as Slaughtneil, it gets a little easier to do but, throughout their show-stopping journey over the last few years, Burke has stopped time and immortalised moments.
She's the one who captured that blood-filled image of the Slaughtneil hurler that, with one picture, summed up the entire club. She's the one who produced that moving picture of the Slaughtneil physio at Croke Park last year that showed the game is so much more than the ones fortunate enough to play it.
And, with one powerfully poignant picture of a man that every GAA person on this isle should be proud of, Mary K Burke's work sums up the day, sums up the battle, the emotion and, what is more, it tells you everything you could ever want to know about Patsy Bradley.
https://twitter.com/MKBurke1/status/968548509992542211
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