Dublin's Donal Burke is one of the sweetest strikers of a sliotar in hurling.
By John Harrington
Last week former Dublin hurler Conal Keaney had a swipe at analysts who come out with “the lazy stuff that there’s no marquee forwards in Dublin or we’ve no wrists in Dublin or whatever.”
Keaney didn’t have a bad pair of wrists himself, but if you really want to rubbish the theory that Dublin hurlers lack for natural skill then Donal Burke should be Exhibit A.
The Na Fianna club-man has been one of the very best forwards in the country for the past year in particular during which time his scoring stats have gone stratospheric.
He’s scored 2-101 in the last nine League and Championship matches he’s played, coming in at an average of 12 points per game, and finished as the top scorer in this year's Allianz Hurling League.
His free-taking has been hugely impressive, but he’s also scored 1-23 from play over the course of those matches so he’s a very much an all-rounder.
Quick, brave, and skilful, what really stands out about Burke’s left-handed style is his economy of movement when shooting. He generates enormous power with very little back-lift and there are few wristier hurlers in the game.
Tom Ryan is Chairman of the National Poc Fada Committee and a real driving force behind the rejuvenation of hurling in Na Fianna.
He’s seen Burke develop from a very young age and the ability was always very apparent.
“He was always something special,” Ryan told GAA.ie “He was part of a very good squad of players that came up together the whole way but he was the guy that you'd turn to in a game for exceptional scores.
“There was one classic one where we played St. Brigid's in a County Minor semi-final and we were level in injury-time and Donal got the ball in the left half-forward position on the sideline with three Brigid's players around him, and hit the ball into the wind straight over the bar even though he was operating in a tiny amount of space.
“That's the kind of score he'd be getting for Na Fianna teams all the time.
“He's a natural finisher and an exceptional striker of the ball. He's accurate, and he's always able to hit a ball very quickly, he needs very little time and space to get a shot away.”
Donal Burke pictured at the launch of Dublin GAA's partnership with Ballygowan and Energise Sport.
The only thing that has surprised Ryan about Burke’s blossoming in the past year has been just how elite his free-taking has been, because it was never a role he naturally assumed for his club.
“Funnily, I would never have seen him as a free-taker,” says Ryan. "It's only since he's gotten involved with Dublin that he's established himself as a freetaker. I certainly don't remember him being on frees generally.
“He has the mentality for it though because he's a very cool customer.”
Burke has benefited from both nature and nurture. His father is a native of Banagher in Offaly and was a noted Dublin club hurler himself back in the day with Faughs.
Donal is the middle brother of three and it was a rare day when the siblings didn’t do battle with hurley and sliotar as children.
His eldest brother Sean plays senior for Na Fianna while younger brother Kevin is a member of the Dublin senior panel and was centre-back on the Dublin U-20 team that lost the 2020 All-Ireland Final to Cork last weekend, so the hurling gene is clearly strong in the family.
He’s appreciated by all in Na Fianna for what he’s like as a person off the pitch as well as a hurler on it. He makes time for everyone and gives back to the club as much as he can, so there’s a great collective pride in how the 23-year old is performing at the highest level.
“He's just a very down to earth, nice guy, a really genuine fella,” says Ryan.
“He's a great club-man. Where you often see him is up on the pitch just pucking around with his friends, the likes of the two Curries, Shane Barrett and these guys.
“There's a generation of them in the club who have grown up together as hurlers.”
Donal Burke of Na Fianna in action against James Madden of Ballyboden St Enda's during the 2020 Dublin County Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final match between Ballyboden St Enda's and Na Fianna at Parnell Park in Dublin.
Burke is part of a generationa of Na Fianna hurlers who won five Dublin minor titles in six years from 2012 to 2017.
That achievement was all the more notable because at the turn of the millennium it looked like hurling in Na Fianna was in dire straits with the club failing to field a minor team since 1985.
Na Fianna as a club are a microcosm of how hurling in the capital has become stronger and stronger in the past two decades.
They sowed the seeds for a brighter future when they started a hurling nursery from scratch and were able to field a minor team again in 2000 when the first crop of young hurlers was harvested.
For everyone involved in the project of revitalising hurling in the club, seeing a player like Donal Burke develop into such a crucial player for a Dublin team contesting a Leinster SHC Final this Saturday is a huge source of pride.
“It's great to see him develop into the hurler he has become and making it at the very highest level,” says Ryan. “It's great for Na Fianna too because it really stamps us a hurling club.
“It's absolutely inspiring for young players in our club to be able to see players like Donal Burke and Shane Barrett hurl at the highest level in the same way it is for them to see the likes of Jonny Cooper and Eoin Murchan play football for Dublin.
“If Dublin could win this Leinster Hurling Final on Saturday it wouldn't be just a great catalyst to get more kids playing the game, but also to raise the confidence of those who are playing already.”
