Bourke keeping his head down for Tullamore in midst of Australian speculation

CILLIAN Bourke has emerged as one of Tullamore's brightest young talents in recent years and picked up his second county medal on Sunday following the victory over Ferbane.

While doubts over this long term future with Tullamore remain with him being linked to a possible move to the AFL in Australia, he is firmly committed for the moment to Tullamore's cause and ensuring they build on Sunday's success.

He emphasised the importance of county final day to him. “It's an epic feeling, it only comes around once a year. You don't win county finals that often, but we just ended up coming up to win the last three. I was part of the last two, so I've only got this feeling twice. It's just every year, it's that motivation to come back and just to feel this again.”

When Tullamore fell a goal behind with four minutes to go, they didn't panic and hit back straight away. “I think we were quite used to actually being on the back foot, because there was obviously going to be points where you slip up and that was just a slip up. But look the character of our team just really showed there. I mean the youth and the speed and all the power just to break tackles and get out and again, the legs just to push on for the last few minutes. But as I said the main point is that was character and the character showed,” Cillian said,

“No heads dropped, we all reset, we knew exactly what we were going to do. Just go again, go again, go again. That's what we built our team on, just keep going and going until the final whistle blows.”

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They were only three points down at half time having played against the wind so they must have been content enough at that stage?

“We were and we weren't. Obviously I had a goal chance, which should have been put in the back of the net. We had a couple of points that we missed also and in theory, we probably could have been drawing or up by half time. We weren't content, let's say, but we knew we weren't in the worst position. Look as a whole yes at halftime we were happy but we knew we could push on even more. I think at the start of the second half we pushed on a bit but then again we just slipped back. We slipped back to a level but then again we came back.”

He agreed that they probably should have been more than three points up midway through the second half. “We should have been at least three more points ahead I would have thought now, just didn't put chances away. but, again, all that matters is the score at the end.”

Conditions on the day were't great with wind and rain but Cillian said “to be honest, I actually expected a lot worse now because the game was on beforehand (Junior B final replay). They weren't the worst I would have said. I would have definitely expected this place to be torn up but in fairness to the officials in O'Connor Park they're keeping it in a serious nick to get in into this condition. For us to be able to express our football out here then, it's exceptional.”

Having gone close last year to eventual All-Ireland champions Cuala in the Leinster Club championship, Tullamore will now be aiming for a good run in Leinster.

“Definitely. Since the start of the year, the aim has always been to get out of Offaly. It's a tough competition in itself. It was very cagey for the most part when it comes to the last four teams. But as a whole, yes, we're really looking towards Leinster right now and again just pushing that one step further. We fell a bit short to Cuala, in the end they were the better team on the day and again they just pushed on. Their star players kept them going. But I would have said at the end I still would say that we're definitely in with a chance.”

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Cillian has been linked to a possible move to Aussie Rules but he said while it is a possibility, there is nothing decided yet.

“Look, I suppose there's not too much going on at the minute. We'll just have to see over the next few months, but I can't give a yes or a no, so. It's a possibility, but again, I'm just going to keep the head down on Tullamore for the moment. And if something arrives, I will see what the decision is then,” he said.