BURKE NEVER DOUBTED ST THOMAS’ ABILITY TO MAKE FINAL CUT
FINTAN BURKE admits that he used the ‘hurt’ of being ‘written off’ against Ballygunner to fuel his club’s All-Ireland semi-final ambush of the Munster champions. The six-in-a-row Galway champions St Thomas’ produced a performance of thundering intensity to knock out the tournament favourites in a preChristmas classic that involved extra time and penalties. And the powerhouse defender said he fed off the narrative that it was Ballygunner’s title to lose going into that game. ‘It’s not something we mentioned as a group but it was probably something everybody personally used a small bit, apart from obvious numerous other things you use every other day, remarked Burke ‘I wouldn’t say it was a massive motivation for us but it was something I personally used anyway. It hurt a small bit being written off like that.’ Burke produced a towering performance at the heart of the St Thomas’ defence and didn’t shirk the pressure of being asked to take a penalty in the dramatic shoot-out that rounded off the game. And while his was saved by goalkeeper, Stephen O’Keeffe, he was so relieved when his team still progressed. ‘I wouldn’t be a lad for panicking,’ he explained as to why a defender like himself was selected as one of the five takers. ‘We were taking penalties in the lead-up to it and I would have hit them all and scored the majority of them. When they asked if I’d hit one I said, “Yeah, no bother”. ‘When I was walking up, the two boys had gone left before me so I just said I’m going to go left with this one. ‘It probably wasn’t the worst penalty I ever struck. It was just unlucky that O’Keeffe blocked it. It was just unlucky and look, you just get on with it. It’s not the end of the world, thank God.’ While it worked out for his team in the end — St
Thomas’ now meet O’Loughlin Gaels of Kilkenny in Sunday’s AIB club senior hurling final at Croke Park — he’s not a fan of penalties to decide a winner on the day. ‘If you win you don’t care and if you lose you say it’s a terrible way to separate games, do you know that sort of way? ‘It’s probably not the way to separate a match of that kind of importance. It’s probably a pity it didn’t go
to a replay or even give it another go of extra-time. Even though bodies are tired at least it’s proper hurling. It doesn’t really reflect a team’s ability in hurling when it goes to penalties if you get me.’ As for the scheduling of the All-Ireland series with the semi-finals pre-Christmas before a five-week break to the final, he said: ‘When you’re winning, you don’t really care. To be honest, I’d probably play Christmas Day because you’re playing in an All-Ireland club final. ‘It probably would be nice to run it off in the full calendar year and not having it crossing over, especially when you’re looking to get back into an inter-county set-up straight away. It would be nice to wrap up that year’s hurling in the one year.’