Galway’s Burke keen to move on

FOUR weeks have passed since Galway’s devastating defeat to Tipperary at All-Ireland senior hurling quarter-final stage, but plying his trade at another level has helped Tribesmen player David Burke to cope.

Galway’s senior ambitions ground to a halt at the last eight for the second successive year, yet for Burke being captain of the county U21 side has helped the pain subside as his focus switched to this evening’s Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland U21HC semi-final against Dublin in Tullamore.

“It was fairly hard alright as we were gutted for the week,” recalls Burke. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it, but fair play to Tipp. I went in training the week after the Tipp match and it was grand. I enjoyed getting back to it. So we’re looking forward to Saturday evening.”

This season marked Burke’s first experience of life as a senior intercounty hurler and the increase in standards required hit home. The low point was a controversial sending-off against Offaly in the Leinster championship, which ruled him out of the provincial decider with Kilkenny. Yet it was a season where he is hopeful the experience will stand to him and he is eager that the man who gave him his shot at senior level, John McIntyre, will remain in charge of Galway for 2011.

“It was my first year at senior and it’s a massive step up from playing Clare last year in the U21 semi-final. It’s just a huge step up, when playing the league to the championship. It’s ridiculous. The game against Tipp was ferocious and (had) huge intensity. I thought I was sent off harsh enough against Offaly and missed the Kilkenny game. But that’s life, you just take what you can get and get on with it. There’s a good set up there and John’s a great manager. A lot of people in Galway would be delighted to see him stay on for another year. Anything else would be a backwards step.”

Unlike previous years, the current batch of Galway U21’s are not spearheaded by a plethora of senior stars. Burke and corner-forward Richie Cummins are the only current seniors and for the first time since 2005, a Galway U21 team will take to the field without the mercurial Joe Canning. Burke believes the onus now is on individuals to raise their performances.

“A lot of the players psychologically will be thinking that they have to raise their game. Joe was a great U21 player but you’d be thinking ‘he’ll do this for us or do that.’ He was unreal last year, scoring 4-7. But we have six forwards now and there’s no one else you’re going to count on. They’re going to have to stand up and be counted themselves and get a few scores. This year, we would have a better balance to the U21 team all over the field.”

While Galway limber up for their seasonal debut, Dublin enter the game on the back of a prosperous Leinster championship campaign.

“If you look at Dublin there, they’ve played a couple of good matches in Leinster. We’re kind of cold in one sense. But if it goes right for us on the day and we can come out with the result, it won’t seem so bad.”