MEATH DEFENDER MICKEY Burke has admitted it got him down to be ‘made out as the baddie’ after the 2014 Leinster final biting controversy.
Meath manager Mick O’Dowd was furious after the game when he alleged that a ‘biting incident’ had occurred and Burke later attended Navan Hospital to have his finger treated.
Burke tangled with Dublin forward Eoghan O’Gara late in Meath’s 16-point defeat and his hand made contact with O’Gara’s mouth area.
No charges were brought against O’Gara due to a lack of evidence and some claimed afterwards that the Dublin hero actually showed restraint as Burke had both hands on the player.
Pundit and Kerry legend Tomas O’Shea said that O’Gara ‘did very well not to react’ and claimed that O’Gara ‘got five or six bangs on the head that anybody would have reacted to’.
Burke, 30, is set to start for Meath on Sunday when they meet Dublin again in the Leinster semi-finals and O’Gara is likely to feature at some stage.
“I was made out to be the baddie a bit,” said Burke. “I don’t want to say too much on it, to be honest. It is what it is and everyone knows what happened it’s done now.”
Burke said it was ‘a tough few days’ afterwards and praised manager O’Dowd for sticking by him.
“We’d a game to prepare for against Armagh and I have to say Micko was very good to me, he stood by me,” added Burke. “It kind of got you down. It was the first time something like this had happened to me.
“I got red cards and stuff like that before but it was on every radio station, it was in every paper and Micko was ringing me, ‘just keep calm, keep the head’. He was very, very supportive of me and I appreciated that. But look, we’ve moved on.”
Burke describes himself as ‘relatively shy off the field’ though his immense physical presence has made him a stand out figure on the field and he has emerged as a cult hero within Meath.
Aside from his muscular frame, beard and long hair, the Longwood man also a number of prominent tattoos on his right arm.
They range from an image of his mother to various quotes, some coffee beans and Roman numerals.
“People probably judge you by the way you play, by the way you look and stuff like that,” said Burke. “I’ve always had a beard. I suppose the hair’s a bit longer than normal. Look, I suppose I’ve always been my own man, a little bit different but my feet are on the ground, I’d like to think. I’m a fairly quiet man off the field but a different man on it I suppose.”
Burke is a talented hurler but admitted his form generally dropped last year when he was operating as a dual player and he featured in just one NHL game this year.
As a result, he missed Meath’s historic march to the Christy Ring Cup final though has at least been spared the choice between playing for his county in Saturday’s Ring final replay at Croke Park or taking on Dublin there on Sunday.
Burke said that just six years ago he questioned if he would be able to play again at all after breaking his tibia and fibula, and damaging knee ligaments, during a Championship tie against Laois in Tullamore.
“I did the ligaments in the knee, medial ligaments, and the tibia and fibula,” he said. “It was tough, it was lonely, it was nine months off. I didn’t know whether I was going to get back but I really wanted to get back. I love playing for Meath.
“At the start, I remember lying in the bed (in Tullamore hospital) with my gear on me still and Boylan, Sean, he was the first man in to see me. My father or mother didn’t pop up, they were down at the game, they didn’t pop up until an hour or two after!
“Sean was in crying beside me and I was like, ‘Oh, Jesus’. It was shocking. I remember him saying this was the best place. And I just remembering saying, ‘I’m going to give it a lash, I’m going to do whatever I’ve got to do to get back’. I’m all in or all out anyway in everything.”
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