ST THOMAS’ Donal Cooney says the memory of their St Patrick’s Day All-Ireland final collapse against Ballyhale Shamrocks will drive them forward as they seek a return to the club hurling decider.
The back-to-back Galway champions face Tipperary and Munster winners Borris-Ileigh at the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday, with a place in the final against the 2019 winners or Slaughtneil the prize for victory.
Cooney is expected to line out in the half-back line alongside his brother Shane, while team captain Conor will be handed much of the scoring burned for the family from his position at the edge of the square.
Ballyhale had 17 points to spare on a day where everything seemed to go wrong for St Thomas’, and according to Cooney (29) his teammates have recovered admirably from that crushing All-Ireland final loss.
“Hopefully it does stand to us. We are an experienced team that should be able to perform. Even after the All-Ireland final defeat you have to move on and look at the next challenge,” said Donal Cooney, who is an engineering teacher in Garbally College.
“If you are always looking back at what happened you get caught out. I think it will stand to us but as a team we have moved on and we have to look at Borris-Ileigh as our opponents and nothing else.
“It was a brilliant year in general from where we started after the All-Ireland loss. We picked ourselves back up even with all the injuries and got going again.
“Before the match we had Kenneth (Burke) getting injured in the semi-final, then Eanna (Burke) and Fintan (Burke) were injured on the day. That doesn’t help. Then you are playing a fantastic team like Ballyhale, you have to be at full capacity to play them.
“Then we didn’t perform, whatever happened on the day we didn’t play well. And it was a pity, but we got ourselves back together. We have never lay down and felt sorry for ourselves since, which is a huge mark of this team.”
Victory over Liam Mellows for the second year in a row handed St Thomas’ their fourth title and saw them win consecutive Galway championships for the first time in their history. Coming two weeks after their loss to Ballyhale, it would have been easy for them to hit the Galway championship with dampened enthusiasm, but playing with his blood relatives and best friends has driven Cooney.
“It is one of the best feelings you can have, playing with your family. For us it’s fantastic, it’s our social outlet. I have two bothers playing with me, but James Regan was always over in our house, the Sherrys, the Burkes too, it is a big family.
“Every lad around, we’ve known each other since we were kids. Mick Donoghue – he got the hall of fame this year for the club – he started with us when we were Under 6 playing indoor hurling with plastic hurls. That’s how we all started over in Peterswell hall.
“All the lads were at it then, and it’s amazing how we have all stuck together, twenty-something years we are all still together.”
