Burke hoping Tipperary can follow up last year’s U21 success

BRIAN BURKE had his own share of heartbreaking U21 football tales to recall as he pointed the car towards Tralee for last April’s Munster decider.

In 1987 he was part of a Tipperary side pipped by a point by Cork and 12 months later Kerry downed them by a similar margin after a replay. Plenty of Tipperary U21 football sides experienced their own disappointment after that until the glorious 2010 success was achieved.

“It was a fantastic occasion and I’ll never forget the excitement when we won that match”, recalls Burke. “I remember going back to the 80’s when I was playing and we lost two finals by a point. That was heartbreaking so it was great to see the boys managing to make the breakthrough last year. They suffered a lot the previous year when a late goal from Cork downed us and you couldn’t have scripted the kind of disappointment they suffered.