ON THE STRETCH of road between Gort and Loughrea, has sprung a Galway hurling powerhouse.

In 2012 St Thomas contested a county senior hurling final for the first time. They triumphed then and when they achieved that feat on the first Sunday last December, it marked their sixth Galway title in ten seasons.

It’s an impressive display of staying power, a club that has remarkably never lost a senior decider out west, and heads into the All-Ireland arena again next Sunday when they meet Kilkenny kingpins Ballyhale Shamrocks.

“We probably have around 200 houses, it’s maybe 10 kilometres long and all it is is left and right of the main road, that small bit,” outlines defender Fintan Burke.

“All the way up along, we’d be competing at a B or C level. Even now, I think we have no team coming through at the A level, we don’t have the catchment to be competing at that stage. We have 15 young lads for most teams.

“It’s about trying to get one or two good young lads every year. In a few years time, the pendulum will swing to the bigger towns and villages that people are moving into, the likes of Clarinbridge and Turloughmore which are closer to Galway city. That will put us under pressure being so rural. You just have to embrace the challenge, and go as hard as you can for as long as you are at it.”

They have evolved to stay at the top in Galway. Last year saw them complete four-in-a-row, an admirable milestone that had not been achieved in the county since the ‘60s.

The previous three wins on the spin had been overseen by Kevin Lally and Limerick’s TJ Ryan, the latest masterminded by Kenneth Burke and Laois coach Tommy Fitzgerald.

The change in leadership did not prove disruptive.

“Outside of the club, people were questioning how we can let Kenneth take over when was still playing last year,” says Burke.

“Behind the scenes, Kenneth would have been taking a lot of warm-ups, he would have been taking a lot of drills even under Kevin Lally. Lads didn’t think too much of it. When you look at what Kenneth has achieved as a player, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t trust him, and give him your full respect.”

The outside input is something they are always willing to embrace.
“We’d be a firm believer in bringing someone from the outside that has no ties to anyone. The fact that it’s a small club, and there’s a lot of family relations, you don’t want any influence like that inside the club that someone has to pick someone that they know.

“He (Tommy Fitzgerald) is awful quiet. He wouldn’t be seen too much on the days of matches, but his attention to detail, and his vision of where he wants us to go has just really brought us along.”

When St Thomas made that local breakthrough in 2012, they surfed the wave of success through the winter to reign on St Patrick’s Day 2013 against Offaly’s Kilcormac-Killoughey.

Scaling those heights again has not been easy. They discovered just how powerful the Ballyhale attacking punch was in the 2019 final, shipping 2-28 as part of a 17-point defeat.

For Burke the pain of that outcome was worsened by the personal setback of tearing his cruciate in that game.

“I work as an electrician so once I did the knee I was out of work for about four months so I had nothing else really to do with my time. I said it as a joke in the dressing-room after we lost to Ballyhale, I said to Kevin Lally that I’d make it back for the county final and he kind of laughed about it.

But in the back of the mind it was always there that I was going to try to make it back. That was nearly the main motivating factor of having something to look forward to and having a reason to get up in the morning and do my exercises. Thank God, the lads up in Santry really looked after me. I had nothing too major going wrong with it.”

Burke’s work as an electrician marks him out in the Galway senior panel.

“Last year I think I was the only one who was doing a trade on the county panel. You have to be very strategic in terms of how you plan out your days. You’re up at half five in the morning and you’re not home from training until nine o’clock.

“I always wanted to be an electrician. Colm Burke is the boss and in fairness he’s good. If I need a day’s rest coming up to a championship match there’s no problem. He’ll always look after you. He helps that way. To be honest, I enjoy being an electrician so I wouldn’t really change it.

“The strength and conditioning coach, Lukasz [Kirszenstein], he knows from the last four years that I’m doing a more physically draining job than others. He balances the load a small bit better.”

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