Burke’s introduction proves the St Thomas’ trump card

St. Thomas’ 1-13

Liam Mellows 0-14

LAZARUS may have risen from the dead, but did he ever bounce back from a serious cruciate injury in the same calendar year, come off the bench to turn the most important game of the season on its head, and strike over two crucial points in a three-minute spell in a county senior hurling championship final? He did not, but Fintan Burke did.

Having sustained a horrific cruciate injury in the All-Ireland club final against Ballyhale Shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day, the 22-year-old Castleboy defender dedicated himself to his recovery in an effort to return to action for St. Thomas’, should they reach the knockout stages. Some would have regarded Burke’s aspiration as fantasy; others would have used the word folly.

Yet, just after half-time in a county final that threatened to get away from them in the first half, the former Galway U21 star shed the tracksuit, exercised up and down the line, took hurl and helmet in hand, and, on 38 minutes, entered the fray.

By this time, St. Thomas’ had clawed an earlier five-point deficit back to a single point and looked to be on the move. However, the champions required something extra if they were to overcome a Liam Mellows team that had asked serious questions of them, particularly in the first half.

Burke was to offer that as manager Kevin Lally threw caution to the wind and pitched his trump card into the attack. It was not a position unfamiliar to Burke, having captained the club’s U21 side from the centre-half forward berth in their 2018 campaign.

However, it was a move Liam Mellows, having lost their way in the third quarter, could not have legislated for beforehand. All of a sudden, Louis Mulqueen and his management had another difficult situation to contend with.

As it was, the City outfit could not get a handle on him and over the next 20 minutes Burke spearheaded the St. Thomas’ attack as if he were a wily veteran. Things began to happen.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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