Bourke taking hunt for double glory in his stride

By Kevin Egan

It was a bone of contention in 2023, it has been a thorny subject in 2024, and no doubt it’ll be the same story again in 2025.

At the very top level of Gaelic games, crossover between senior and U-20 teams is becoming incredibly rare. The Dublin footballers are the extreme example but in the case of most strong senior counties, it would be rare for more than one or two U-20 players to see action in a senior championship game.

Given where Offaly are right now - trying to win the Joe McDonagh Cup in order to move up to the top tier, but also blessed with an exceptional crop of young hurlers - it’s a different story here. There are those who argue that the U-20s have a chance to do something special and should be let take on their championship bid unimpeded, and there are others that would say that the senior team’s bid to get back up into the Leinster championship is all-important, so that should be the top priority.

Offaly have rolled the dice on letting their top U-20s play senior when asked, and while that heavier workload may or may not have been a factor in Dan Ravenhill’s injury, the form of players like Adam Screeney, Cathal King, Donal Shirley and U-20 captain Dan Bourke has if anything, served as strong evidence for the value of playing at the two levels.

“It is tough enough on the body but Leo (O’Connor) and Johnny (Kelly), I can’t say enough good things about them. They’ve handled it very well. We’ve been taking breaks from training and it’s paid off because everyone on the senior panel was very fresh and ready to go,” he said.

With plenty of responsibility on his shoulders with the senior team as well as with the U-20s, it’s probably as well that Bourke feels that the team captaincy is essentially a ceremonial role now.

“There are plenty of leaders around the place. You don’t have to do much other than represent the team whenever you do go up and win something,” said the Ballinamere player.

“Leo said when he told me that I was captain, ‘all I want you to do is go up and lift the cup at the end of the year’. I don’t really think of it as a job. Play your game and that’s it. I don’t really feel much pressure within the group at all. I trust the team, I trust everybody.

"We all know once we go out onto the pitch everyone is going to do their job. We’re not the biggest of teams so I suppose we use our speed and fitness and overall hurling ability and we’ll get over the line then”.

Ah yes – the size issue. Bourke was part of the Offaly team that struggled with that aspect against Cork last year. Now that he’s had a chance to reflect on that game, what did he take from it?

“They were the more physical team on the day, and I suppose there were a few mistakes we made that we’ve polished up between now and then. Taking balls into tackles when you should be taking a shot, going for goals when they might not be on. Keeping the scoreboard ticking over is the winning and losing of games,” he said.

Bourke seems to have made peace with the defeat, and feels that the lessons have been taken on board by the group as a whole.

“You’d hear a lot of stuff about it after the game, but it’s done and over with now. We still had chances to win the game. Munster teams are more physical and we have been playing a lot of Munster teams in challenge matches so I feel like we are geared towards that again this year.”

So just the final looms. Any thoughts for the happy possibility of having to make a victory speech?

“No, I got my dad to write the last one (for the Leinster final against Dublin) didn’t think of it until I was walking up on the stage,” he smiles.

The secret to all good leaders – the power of delegation. It’s no surprise that Dan Bourke is taking the pursuit of two huge trophies in his stride.