You work so hard for that one moment.
All them years of hitting a sliotar out the back garden, the miles run and the training sessions that are more gruelling than enjoyable.
You don’t reap the rewards without the graft and it was long overdue for Galway, their barren spell ended in September as their captain David Burke climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift the Liam McCarthy.
The All-Ireland title was coming home.
There’s a lot of pressure that comes with being the winning captain, you’re the poster boy for everything Galway until next year’s campaign and it can certainly be a pressure situation to be in but Burke has taken it in his stride.
The Galway captain was speaking at PwC’s sponsorship at the All-Star awards last week and revealed how much he is enjoying the whole occasion:
“It is (everything I thought it’d be) I was mindful, the last few years I’d be seeing lads and you’d always see lads saying they rarely enjoyed it, I think I saw Jackie Tyrell saying in his book he didn’t really enjoy being captain after the game (because) he missed a lot but I just kind of said I’d take it all in if I could enjoy it and I have, definitely,” Burke said.
“I have a smile on my face every morning going to work.”
Burke also revealed the intricacies of writing an All-Ireland speech and when he wrote it:
“I wrote it three days after the Tipperary game. Well, I got help off of my mother,” Burke admitted.
“Sure, I had one done for the Leinster final and one for the league and put everything together and did a few more bits It was just bullet points really gave it to the kit man and the mother as well.
“I didn’t see it again for the three weeks again before the game and it kind of took the pressure off me,” he concluded.
