Fintan Burke: We've had a habit of not showing up for semi-finals

Galway hurling has produced many great club teams in the past three decades, yielding 12 All-Ireland titles in the period 1992-2014, but in one respect at least St Thomas' have eclipsed them all.

Late last month, they weathered a ferocious challenge from Loughrea on successive Sundays, to squeeze home by a point in a county final replay, securing a five-in-a-row - a feat last achieved by Turloughmore in the 1960s.

In a club scene as fevered and competitive as Galway, five-in-a-row is a major landmark but Fintan Burke isn't inclined to bathe in self-congratulation over it just yet.

"It doesn't mean anything to me at the moment. I haven't really thought about it," he told RTÉ Sport.

"We'd probably be of the opinion that you'll have enough time when you're 40 or 50, sitting at the barstool, looking into a pint, thinking about how great you were, winning five in a row. But while you're here, you might as well stay going.

"Records and all that craic aren't for us to be worrying about now. It's for years down the line when you're in the pub with auld lads from different clubs and you can have that argument with them as to who was the better club team.

"For now, it's just for us to focus on ourselves and try our best to win as much as we can when we can."

One of the curiosities of Thomas' era of dominance in Galway is how closely contested the finals have been.

Typically, when a club racks up a five-in-a-row back home, you'd anticipate a couple of county final cakewalks on their CV.

During Portumna's imperial phase in Galway in the late 2000s, there were 18 and 19-point victories in county deciders.

In the case of St Thomas' run, aside from the relatively comfortable nine-point win over Liam Mellows in 2018, the finals have been won by