David Burke: 'There's a bit of steel coming'
David Burke at the launch of the All-Ireland Hurling Series at Dublin Castle.
By John Harrington
Galway hurler David Burke believes the Tribesmen are developing a steelier approach that will serve them well in the future.
The team came under fire from some quarters after Kilkenny over-ran them in the second-half of the Leinster Hurling Final and Burke admits some of the criticism was deserved.
And he believes the only way they will improve going forward is if both the county’s players and supporters adopt a more ruthless and ambitious mentality.
"Look, it's been harsh but some (of) it's probably true as well in a way,” said Burke.
"I don't know if it is a thing that players let seep into their mind from things that are said. Maybe the general people in Galway are just...I think they might be a biteen soft like. 'Oh, we'll go up and compete anyway. If we win we win, if we lose we lose', whereas you can see in Kilkenny any fans, even talking to people, they want to win all the time.
"That's their mentality. It kind of reflects that in the players as well so if we can just keep focused on what we have to do at hand. I think things are changing though, I can see a bit of a change. There's a bit of steel coming. I know it mightn't have been shown the last day but I think there is a bit coming there."
Burke has been beating himself up since the Leinster Final because he believes his own hesitation in the face of Kilkenny’s growing second-half dominance cost Galway.
"We were still three points up and I remember saying they were kind of opening us up,” recalled Burke. “TJ Reid was pulling it out the field and I was saying, 'Should I go back in the hole now and just close up for a few minutes?' Once they got the goal then it was kind of 'push on and get some scores back', which we did, we got them back to one. And after that I was still saying, 'Should I sit?'
"Next thing they just hit us with four points before you could even think of what you should do. Even though I knew I should have gone back and tightened it up a bit."
David Burke
Galway were always under pressure to deliver this year in the aftermath of a player heave against former manager Anthony Cunningham at the end of last season, and Burke isn’t surprised their failure to justify that stance by winning a Leinster title has been used as a stick to beat them.
"We knew at some stage it was going to be thrown at us regardless," Burke reflected. "Even in the league after losing to Cork the same thing was thrown at us but you can't really take too much from the league, it's different - teams are coming up from Division (1B) and winning the league in the last two years so you can take what you want from it.
"Look, what happened, happened last year. It is in the past. Anthony (Cunningham) brought a huge professionalism to the dressing room and to what we did at training. Micheál (Donoghue) has brought his own thing to it. Be it tactics or a different training regime but still a lot of things are the same. Like what we do at training is nearly the same.
"We knew at some stage that we were going to be hit with that. It's disappointing, how we played, even in the first half, but we need to take the positives now going into the Clare game. If we win that everyone will turn 180 degrees and get behind us. That's the way the Galway people are, I suppose."
One of Galway’s most vocal critic since the defeat to Kilkenny has been another former Tribesman manager, Ger Loughnane, who said they "had no guts whatsoever". Fate has now thrown Galway and Loughnane’s native Clare together in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals, and Burke believes some of his team-mates will use Loughnane’s comments to fire themselves up.
"I'm sure someone else would have been hurt by what was said but everyone's entitled to their opinion really," he said. "They're following the game, they're entitled to it...what only matters is what we do inside the four white lines at the end of the day. I know it's an amateur game really and what we're doing is for your family and for your club and for the county.
"Look, if we can use that motivation...personally I probably won't use it. I motivate myself in a different way but other players will probably use that. It should be a good thing for us really going forward. He's from Clare so it should be a good thing. Lads really now should dig in and stand up for themselves."
