Fintan Burke recalls his last All-Ireland club final appearance as one of the lowest days in his playing career, so five years on the St Thomas’ hurler hopes to rewrite the ending. The 2019 All-Ireland club decider was a hugely disappointing day for Burke on all fronts – that St Patrick’s Day at Croke Park Kilkenny champions Ballyhale Shamrocks ripped apart their Galway counterparts 2-28 to 2-11. To compound matters for Burke midway through the second half he suffered a cruciate ligament tear and was forced off the field.
“It’s definitely in the top three lowest days that I’ve ever put down on the field or off it,” he says.
It says a lot about his determination and strength of character that Burke made a comeback just eight months later in the 2019 Galway SHC final. St Thomas’ have won every Galway SHC since then, but their thirst for a second All-Ireland title – they triumphed in 2013 – remains unquenched. Inevitably, on the year they do negotiate a route back to an All-Ireland final for the first time since 2019, it is once more Kilkenny opponents they face in Sunday’s AIB club decider at Croke Park, 1.30pm. The fact it is O’Loughlin Gaels is significant too as St Thomas’ hosted the Kilkenny city club during the 2011 Féile in Galway.
“I would have known a good few of them from that Féile and stayed in contact with one or two of them, and met one or two playing with the county, and you’d still be friendly enough with them,” he says. “That same Féile year they gave us an awful trimming in our place. Fingers crossed it doesn’t go the same way this weekend.”
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Shortly after the All-Ireland club semi-final in December, Burke took a break and went travelling to Dubai and Australia. “I was away for 10 days. I wanted to [bring the hurl] but I wasn’t allowed. I was told to leave it at home! Lads trained two or three times over the Christmas, nothing crazy, just one or two hard running sessions just to keep the legs fresh and moving, and lads did their own bit of hurling off the wall. Then we came back January 1st or 2nd and hit the ground running.”
Burke wasn’t part of the 2013 Tommy Moore Cup winning side, so getting his hands on an All-Ireland medal helps fuel the fire within.
“Obviously not having an All-Ireland medal in my own back pocket is a big driving force for me. I suppose it’s something that keeps us going for the next year more than anything, that you want to get back there and prove that we are good enough outside of Galway. It’s about finding the balance between enjoying the occasion and the build-up to arguably one of the club’s biggest days, but still staying focused on the task at hand, if that makes sense. You are trying to enjoy it and cherish the moment but not get too sidetracked that you are distracted from your job.”
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