Fintan Burke looks set to follow his cousin David Burke into the Galway senior team and the strength and resilience he will bring has been illustrated by his remarkable recovery from a cruciate injury on St Patrick’s Day to help inspire St Thomas’ to their third county title in four years on Sunday.

Trailing by 0-11 to 0-7 at the break, Thomas’ won the second period by 1-6 to 0-3, but it wasn’t until the final 12 minutes of the half that the Thomas’ display really sparked to life.

Sunday’s league semi-final will tell Galway manager Micheál Donoghue whether the fringe players he has persisted with throughout the spring are capable of making an impact come championship, according to former Galway forward Niall Healy.

Conor Cooney has warned that rural Ireland is on “it’s last legs’” and called on the GAA to play its part in addressing the crisis by investing more in clubs that are struggling for numbers, resources and, in too many cases, their very lives.

The Galway senior hurlers will be aiming to lean on Kieran ‘Star’ Donaghy’s basketball expertise as much as his experience of big football days, according to forward Conor Cooney.

In a game like this, the inches all count.

St Thomas’ claimed their third Galway SHC title with the largest winning margin in nine seasons as Darragh Burke inspired them to a memorable victory at Pearse Stadium.

St Thomas 1-11 Gort 0-10: St Thomas manager John Burke insisted that his side have what it takes to go all the way to All-Ireland glory for the second time, after they were deserving winners of the Galway SHC title yesterday.

Galway 0-21 Dublin 0-19 (after extra time): On many levels Galway required this win. There was last week’s senior disappointment, last week’s minor disappointment and the disappointment suffered at this very juncture for the last four Augusts.

UCC 3-19 GMIT 0-8: The sight of Conor Lehane, Alan Cadogan and Shane O’Donnell being clapped off the field midway through the second-half painted a most accurate picture of this stroll in the park for UCC.

Portumna 0-22 St Thomas’ 1-19

Conor Cooney got defending All-Ireland champions St Thomas’ Galway SHC campaign back on track with their first win of the group stages over Killimordaly.

For a good four days there, from Saturday morning through to Wednesday, the Facebook feed went unfed and unchecked, Twitter managed to survive without @Rackob and the internet lost a good few hundred page hits.

St Thomas (Galway) 1-11 v Kilcormac-Killoughey (Offaly) 1-09

If you heard Anthony Cunningham speaking on RTÉ’s League Sunday last weekend, the chances are you detected a rasp of a sore throat on the Galway manager.

Tipperary have named an unchanged starting side for Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final clash with Kilkenny, but the major talking point is the inclusion of Toomevara’s John O’Brien at full-forward. O’Brien’s brother Thomas passed away earlier this week.

REIGNING champions Portumna sealed a place in the quarter-finals of the Galway senior hurling championship when they defeated Kinvara by 2-22 to 1-10 in a repeat of the 2007 county final.