Éanna Burke’s glorious late point wins St Thomas’ dramatic All-Ireland club final

All-Ireland SHC club final: St Thomas’ 0-18 O’Loughlin Gaels 0-17

In the end, there was an outpouring of emotion for St Thomas’ and their supporters. An All-Ireland, 11 years after their first and some years after many had given up on a second ever materialising, was clinched as the last few sands of injury-time were draining away.

It shouldn’t have been a score given the position, tight on the left sideline, and the valiant attentions of the O’Loughlin’s Gaels’ defence at a time when nearly all players were flagging under the strain of an intense AIB club hurling final.

Éanna Burke had already shown the ability to snap shots from telephone kiosks when scoring a 55th-minute point while surrounded by opponents and nanoseconds after he had taken possession to push the winners 0-16 to 0-14 ahead.

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He was also arguably lucky to be still on the field after a wild pull across Jordan Molloy went unpunished in the 43rd minute, as he had been shown a yellow just minutes previously.

There was a potential final twist when O’Loughlins were awarded a free with the four minutes of injury-time now up but it was a tall order for captain Mark Bergin, who had sealed the Leinster final in similar fashion, and his shot in the gathering gusts was off course and left of the posts.

The Galway champions had to make a major stand, especially after the 32nd minute when James Regan was red carded after a careless challenge on Jack Nolan. Contact looked slight enough but the player immediately raised his hands in acknowledgment and referee Seán Stack deemed the incident sufficiently bad for dismissal.

St Thomas’ had to gather their resources and showed immense resilience to wrest control of the scoreboard and maintain a narrow lead throughout the second half during which they were the superior side despite being reduced to 14.

Their big players delivered with captain Conor Cooney a persistent menace as their depleted attack took the fight to their opponents and they were led by Galway’s 2017 All-Ireland winning captain David Burke, who had a heroic match.

Not long back from a serious knee injury, he chased and contested, switching at one stage into the full forward line and scoring a point but driving the team throughout even when clearly struggling from his exertions.

Manager Kenneth Burke said that he had no intention of removing his brother.

“I suppose coming back from injury and with not that much game time in the legs, he was flagging at the end but you had to leave him out there because he’s such experience and he could get a ball and take a score.”

The controversy started early. In the ninth minute, the exceptional Cian Mahony got in a block on Eoin O’Shea but the ball broke for Owen Wall and his powerful shot was blocked on the line by Fintan Burke. It was a great intervention but television pictures showed fairly conclusively that the sliotar had been over the line before being cleared.

There is no Hawk-Eye equivalent nor a VAR system to adjudicate on goals and so play continued but the error was a matter of unhappiness for the Kilkenny champions.

This was a hard match to officiate with eight yellow cards and one red. There could have been more. In injury time at the end of the first half, Thomas’ wing back John Headd tipped Seán Bolger over the Hill advertising hording and into the netting behind the goals.

No action was taken.

In that first half, O’Loughlin’s had started well and showcased the value of their defence. Huw Lawlor had the better of his tussle with Oisín Flannery although he was forced into a rugby tackle at one stage for which he received a yellow card.

Paddy Deegan squared up well to Thomas’ captain Conor Cooney and still got up for two points, as did All-Star corner back Mikey Butler. Overall, the defence contributed 0-7 with wing backs David Fogarty and Molloy weighing in with two each of their own – in keeping with a campaign that had a quarter of their scores coming from outside the forwards.

According to their manager, St Thomas’ refocused at half-time when they trailed by two, 0-8 to 0-10 and made switches to address the opposition half backs and hoped to configure with four in the half forwards and two inside. These plans were disrupted by the sending-off but it was noticeable that the Galway champions were superior in creating space and exploiting it.

They looked to have squandered a winning position when losing a three-point lead, 0-17 to 0-13, with normal time nearly elapsed but O’Loughlins somehow scored the next three points from Bergin, a great sweeping shot by replacement Conor Kelly and Fogarty, shooting nervelessly from the left after another counter-attacking run.

The drama wasn’t done, however, and St Thomas’ summoned all their energy at a stage when nearly everyone on the field was running on empty.

Kenneth Burke reflected on the remarkable intervention of Éanna, another brother.

“We were just saying there, what was he going to do with it when he got it in the corner. I suppose the winning of it, we turned them over twice in that succession of play. When they were coming out, we got tackles in. He is able to score those scores. Thankfully it went over.”

ST THOMAS’: G Kelly (0-1f); C Mahony, F Burke, D Sherry; J Headd, S Cooney, C Burke (0-1); D Finnerty, David Burke (0-3); V Manso (0-2), C Cooney (0-6, 4f), Darragh Burke; J Regan (0-2), O Flannery, E Burke (0-3).

Subs: E Duggan for Sherry (20 mins); B Burke for Manso (50 mins), D McGlynn for Flannery (55 mins).

O’LOUGHLIN GAELS: S Murphy (0-1, free) T Forristal, H Lawlor, M Butler (0-1); D Fogarty (0-2), P Deegan (0-2), J Molloy (0-2); J Nolan, C Loy; E O’Shea, M Bergin (0-4, 2f), C Heary (0-1); O Wall, L Hogan (0-1), S Bolger (0-2).

Subs: C Kelly for O’Shea (47 mins), J Ryan for Wall (50 mins), P Butler foir Loy (58 mins).

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