Shamrocks manager Burke lauds his team’s 'huge display of character'

As his players continued to celebrate loudly in the nearby dressing room, Mullingar Shamrocks’ overjoyed manager Micheál Burke took time to talk to the local media after their smash-and-grab Westmeath senior football quarter-final win over Garrycastle in TEG Cusack Park last Saturday afternoon.

The winning bainisteoir stated at the outset: “We were just saying in the dressing room there, ‘we don’t make it easy on ourselves’! Between the St Loman’s game and today, we leave it till the last minute. Look, it was a huge display of character by the boys. When you think about it, we were missing probably three starters in Conor O’Brien, Ryan Kelly and Davy Gavin, and then we lost Denis (Corroon) after 15 minutes. He’s been our talisman for years.

“But they dug in and dug in all the way to the end. When they pointed (via Michael Monaghan) which could have been the last kick of the game, you think it’s done, but similar to the Loman’s game we kept pushing on, and I’m just delighted for the boys, the character they showed. We were in a quarter-final last year and we wanted to get at least a step further this year, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Most observers felt that time was up when Monaghan put Garrycastle ahead. Burke took up the story from there: “Shane (Ormsby) won the kick-out with a massive catch. He went to hit the free quickly and was blocked, and I thought it might have been brought up. The ref played on and Brian (Guerin) just got a foot to it at the end,” he added.

He continued: “You have to admire Garrycastle as well. They are a serious outfit. We have had great battles with them over the years. They came up from group B after winning the intermediate last year, and they could easily have won the game there today. You have to admire them in terms of their resolve as well.”

It was put to the 1999 All-Ireland U21 winner that Garrycastle would have been favourites at the interval, and he responded: “Absolutely. We analysed them during the week. They had scored 12 two-pointers. They have some huge two-point kickers like Jimmy Dolan and Conor Cosgrove, and others. They got a couple of big two-pointers today also. We thought we had done enough when we got four points ahead and they kicked two massive two-pointers (to equalise). Look, we battled back, which is key.”

Burke was asked if the upcoming semi-final against The Downs is ‘a free shot’ for his troops, and he replied: “Yes, that will be the language. The Downs are red-hot favourites and, in fairness, they are playing unbelievable football. They are the best team in the county at the moment, but they still have to get over the line and win it.

“We had a good battle with them here last week and were probably disappointed with how we played in terms of our forward play. But look, as you say, it’s probably a free hit for us and the pressure is probably on The Downs.”

“We’ll just get back to work tomorrow and look forward to two weeks from now. It’s where we want to be. We have injuries, some of them serious, but hopefully we might have some of the boys back. Our physio is going to be busy,” he concluded.