St Thomas’ supremo sets his sights on second county title

Since then, though, St. Thomas’ have grappled to impose their supremacy on the senior circuit, with injuries, harrowing one-point defeats, and plain bad luck costing them another tilt at a second senior title.

Four years on, manager John Burke, who has been to the fore in transforming St. Thomas’ fortunes for the better at both underage and senior over the last two decades, acknowledges it has been a long wait for this talented bunch of players to grace Pearse Stadium on county final day once again.

“After winning it in 2012, everybody was saying you will be there again but you just don’t realise how the years fly by and one year hops into the next,” admits Burke. “We have been unlucky with injuries we have picked up over those couple or so years and 2012 took an awful lot out of our players.

“They continued into the All-Ireland series, which they went on and won, but it took a bit out of us. They were a bit younger and they weren’t as experienced as other teams that go and win something. So, it took a few years to get them up and running again. It is just how the ball hops.”

Along with a horrific catalogue of injuries, there have been a myriad of other factors. Three of their most experienced warriors – Enda Tannian and brothers Robert and Richie Murray – were now in the twilight of their careers and taking that reservoir of experience out of the set-up, well, it was not easily replaced.

“Definitely,” he says. “Just to lose those guys! That is some wealth of experience. They were there for years hurling for us and they were great leaders, particularly for the younger lads. So, it took time for the younger lads to take up that mantle and start leading. They are doing that now though, which is great.”

Indeed, from the side that won the All-Ireland Club title with victory over Kilcormac-Killoughey of Offaly, captain and goalkeeper Patrick Skehill, Burke’s sons Cathal, Darragh, Kenneth, David, Sean (although now based in London) and Eanna, brothers Conor, Shane and Donal Cooney, and Bernard Burke are now that bit older, more experienced and, the manager will hope, wiser.

Added to this, there has also been the emergence of some other younger talent in recent times, no more so than, again, his own son Fintan, Brendan Farrell and Colin Fallon. “You always have to have three or four young lads coming through which we are awful lucky to have. We have some great young lads coming there,” he continues.

“Early on in the year, we were going off playing matches and these young lads were flying it for us in those challenge games. We were just saying, even when we were missing a few of the older lads in the early matches, these guys stood up and were counted. Those games were touch and go. We could have won those and we were playing the top opposition in the county.”

In the group stages, St. Thomas’, incredibly, lost three fixtures and it was a credit to Burke, coach Michael Haverty, the backroom team and, of course, the players that they did not allow the bottom to fall out of their season.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.