New Galway captain has a winning ‘edge’ to his game

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

ST Thomas’ clubman David Burke has always had an edge to him. All great hurlers do and the two-time All-Star winner, who was recently announced as the new Galway senior captain, is no different.

On various occasions over the years, it was bemoaned that the Tribesmen lacked ‘a cutting edge’ and yet it is no coincidence that the last two times Galway reached All-Ireland finals – 2012 and 2015 – Burke was selected as All-Star material. Edge.

A few minutes in Burke’s company and you can see it in his eyes. He talks of the game, the year ahead with Galway, his captaincy . . . he chats about his family – steeped in hurling tradition . . . he alludes to the club scene . . . and all the time there is an edge. Of a man driven.

We dig deeper. And finally, he concedes. He’s 26 years old now and since he made his debut for the Tribesmen against Wexford in 2010, he has seen some very good hurlers come and go – without their All-Ireland medal. Tick tock. Burke does not want to be one of those. He admits it’s frustrating.

“You are saying to yourself did that player actually go through (the set-up) and never win an All-Ireland medal? Or didn’t achieve X, Y or Z?” says the versatile player.

“You have to keep believing though that you are good enough on any day to beat any team, no matter who they are. That is definitely a mental thing in Galway. We kind of let the public’s perception seep into our thinking or our sub conscious in a way at times.”

It’s easy to see where he is coming from. When things go wrong in Galway hurling, the public backlash can be quite strong. There is a “softness” perceived in the team and, he notes, in turn self-doubt begins to ghost through the doorframe and haunt the dressing-room like a poltergeist in the night.

Then, the reaction, he says, becomes “if we (the players) don’t win this (game) it is okay. We are still nice hurlers”. He knows that is, in many respects, the cop out. “So, we just need as a unit, from supporters to County Board to management to players, to get on the one line and move forward.

“We are all striving for the one thing and success has to come from that. After that, we need that bit of hardness and steel to be instilled in the players and to bring it into our games throughout the year and hopefully it will get us where we want to go.”

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