Speaking on the FinalWhistlie.ie WNL Podcast on Wednesday night, Bohs forward Erica Burke spoke on the unique journey as to how she ended up in Dalymount Park despite a strong inter-county career with Kildare LGFA.
“Soccer was my first love really,” said Erica, despite committing her whole underage career to Gaelic Football. Even when she was not playing, her “dream was to play for Ireland”.
Burke was training in Johnstown Bridge Gym when she saw the Irish u21 team and approached a coach, asking “how she could get involved” in the Women’s League at that level and was given James O’Callaghan’s number from Peamount.
This was an incredibly brave move for someone who only really played Soccer as she mentioned with her brother and the lads at school, but one that was motivated by her dream.
After a session with Peamount, O’Callaghan said to “put herself on the shop window” after which Erica contacted Bohs on Twitter and invited her to a training session last March, and that was the beginning of Erica Burke becoming a WNL star.
Erica spoke about how she owes everything to the coaches at Bohs for bringing the skills at the elite soccer level up to the standard she needed to cement a place in the team.
Burke went on to mention how it wasn’t until she started with Bohs that she realised “just how much she didn’t know”. Learning things such as tactics was a big change in helping her “become an all-rounded player”.
You can listen to Erica Burke speaking in full with Breifne and Aaron on this week’s edition of the WNL below.
Samuel Mansfield
26-year-old TV, Radio, and New Media graduate from MTU Kerry based in the Kingdom with a passion for a variety of sports.