*Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
John Burke has put many hours of work into the development of football at the Banner GAA club whose headquarters are at Shanaway Road in Ennis and supporters of the county’s newest club were, understandably, delighted for the team manager when the team graduated to intermediate ranks at Hennessy Park in Miltown on Saturday evening.
“It’s a great day for the Banner and t’was was coming for a while” he said as supporters cheered the team members off the pitch after victory over Ballyvaughan in the 2020 county junior A final.
The team manager continued, “We waited a few months, maybe six or eight, for this. We were really ready after the Ennistymon game (semi-final). We thought we may have lost momentum but we built it up again over recent months, Getting twenty two or twenty three at training, you had to have a day like this at the end of it, otherwise you would be doing something wrong”.
Burke has been involved with the club since the early days. “I took a break for a while but I am back with the lads for the last five years. There is something there, they are a special group, they are disciplined and this is the proof of it. They react to everything you ask them to do. No matter how high you set the bar they reacted”.
“They are a young group. We are heading into intermediate now and hopefully we will get a run at it. They are young and eager and they have a belief in themselves. Communication on the field was a big thing for us. We wanted them to learn how to play the game on the field. We did the work on the line but our imput on the field was very little, they worked on the field”.
Looking ahead to the weekend and their intermediate championship debut, the manager said “we will be rusty enough at the weekend but look, we are here today. Hopefully we will stay up at intermediate and not go back down. That’s where we need to be. Hopefully we can stay there”, he concluded as team captain Cian Rynne raised the Michael Toner cup to loud cheers from the large Banner following.
