hard yards

British  

plural noun

1. a great deal of effort or hard work, esp in playing a sport

   Dallaglio's ability to make the hard yards and cross the gain line

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Example Sentences

As shown, football is more than just data but on a non-scientific level, there remains something comforting about knowing that your team has literally put the hard yards in on the pitch.

From BBC

"We are here to make waves, not ripples. Our Committee Members have been putting in the hard yards over these past nine-months and the surge in interest leading to concrete set-up events and firm commitments is tremendous to see. We have much positive news in the pipeline and during our panel discussion we'll announce three examples representing buy-in with national governments, global scientific institutions and large membership-led organizations."

From Science Daily

"Now we can start hard yards and finding a way forward on security in the Arctic," said the prime minister.

From BBC

"Now we can start hard yards and finding a way forward on security in the Arctic, which may seem a long way away, pretty remote, but actually it does matter to all of us in terms of the safety and security of our country," he said.

From BBC

"We talk a lot about doing the hard yards and sometimes at this level you can beat teams through persistence and put the effort in that maybe other teams won't."

From Barron's