ROVERS’ BURKE HAS BIG FUTURE
STEPHEN Bradley believes Graham Burke has the ability to play for the Republic of Ireland, provided he continues to build on the progress made at Shamrock Rovers since returning from England.
The 24-year-old endured a difficult first season in the Premier Division with two red cards and a knee injury which ended his season a month prematurely.
But the Dubliner showed glimpses of his attacking talent and seems to have brought a consistency to his play in the early stages of this campaign.
Burke netted six times in March to pick up the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland player of the month award and his manager hopes he will improve further over the next 18 months.
‘I think there’s a lot of growing in him. The more mature he becomes in his game, the happier he is in his game. He has the potential to push onto that [international] level but, right now, no.
‘If you’re asking me, with his age profile and the sort of player he is, is he someone who could potentially play for us [Ireland] in the future? Yeah, I think he is.
‘He had to [score regularly] to take his game to another level. His ability is as good as anything we have seen in the league. Graham just needed to settle.’
Burke’s talent was well known when he was a teenager at Aston Villa, but it was during one of his summers at home that Bradley got an insight into his character when they were part of the same group playing five-a-side games.
‘The problem with Graham was that he just got lost in the system over there. When that happens, you lose faith in what you have and what made you the player you are.’
It’s an assessment the player himself agrees with. ‘Being away when it’s just you and your girlfriend it’s tough. Being back here, living at home and having everyone I love living around me, it just makes me happier as a person,’ Burke explained.
‘[With] friends here, you can live normally. In England it was always “what are we going to do? What are we going to do?”
‘Sometimes you sit around doing nothing. Now you can go and do anything, you can talk to the people close to you whereas before it was a phone call, just going to a mate’s house for a cup of tea, playing some PlayStation, it’s those normal interactions which made me happier as a person.’
He is a gifted playmaker capable of splitting a defence with a pass, a piece of vision or a thunderbolt from his left foot. He plays on the edge, though, and insists that with just one yellow card in 10 games so far he is winning the battle in his head when things aren’t going his way.
‘Just to know that in games I will make mistakes. Most of my frustration comes from myself, if I give the ball away or anything like that.
‘If you play with pressure you get yourself all riled up and have nervous energy, so I try to go and relax and play a game of football. At the end of the day it is a game you play because you love it.
‘All you can control is yourself. Everyone has different opinions of you which as a football player you don’t really pay attention to.’
All eyes will be on Burke tonight as Rovers faces Dublin rivals Bohemians at Tallaght Stadium. The Hoops were hit by a stunning comeback against their fierce rivals on the opening night of the season — conceding three goals in 12 secondhalf minutes — and Bradley is adamant the same won’t happen again.
‘It’s not arrogance or laziness. This group is a good group, work really hard. Sometimes as a player you’re that comfortable in a game you just switch off, you can see the clock ticking down, you’re comfortable, they’re not creating chances and your mind just drifts for a minute or two and next there’s a goal or two.
‘Whether we’re 1-0 up or 1-0 down we need to respect we’re in a game for 90 minutes. They’re going to come at us, it’s their cup final and we need to be ready for it.’