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 margins of two points (over Liam Mellows, 2019), two points (Turloughmore, 2020), three points (Clarinbridge, 2021) and one point after a replay (Loughrea, 2022).
Crucially, they have kept clean sheets in all five finals, with Burke, operating at full-back at club level, able to take credit for much of that.
Though it does beg the question. Is the intensity and the gruelling nature of their county championship campaigns a factor in their relatively disappointing showing in the All-Ireland series in the past half-decade?
Burke is dismissive, noting that St Thomas' have often had a healthy break between county finals and the All-Ireland series, without a provincial campaign to navigate.
"Look, there's an argument for every argument. You could say that two games is taking it out of lads.
"But then in the past few years, we've had such a break between county finals and All-Ireland semi-finals that there's no reason lads shouldn't be recovered fully. You win, there's no excuse. But if you lose, you're able to make an argument out of something.
"If you look at our track record, we've probably a habit of not showing up for All-Ireland semi-finals. You can make a hundred excuses but the buck lies with us. I wouldn't say we use it as a motivational factor.
"I'd say the biggest motivating factor for a lot of us is that it isn't going to stick around forever and you're not going to be as successful as we are at the moment.
"When the older lads call it a day, we're probably going to be under pressure, numbers wise. Which is always going to happen. It's just making hay while the sun shines."
One All-Ireland semi-final where St Thomas' definitely did show up was last January's agonising one-point loss to Ballyhale Shamrocks in Thurles, when the Galway side were on the brink of dethroning the then All-Ireland champions until TJ Reid pilfered a last minute goal.
It was a particularly harrowing loss. By the time the final between Ballyhale and Ballygunner was played, Burke was down in the TUS Gaelic Grounds, collecting the man of the match award after Galway's televised Allianz League victory over Limerick. As much as anything else, the defender was glad of the opportunity to avoid the club decider.
"I took a week off and was back county training again," Burke says of the aftermath of the Ballyhale loss.
"I think after most games, you wouldn't mind a few weeks off. But after that game, it was a case of get a game of hurling into you quick, so that's not the last game you're thinking about.
"I remember the All-Ireland final was on the same day we played Limerick in the league in the Gaelic Grounds so that was a welcome distraction for that day, so I didn't have to sit down and watch that match (club final)."
Burke himself was a teenage spectator in the Cusack Stand when St Thomas' did win an All-Ireland title, in the wake of their first county senior title as an amalgamated entity, back in March 2013. A few survivors from that side - David Burke, Conor Cooney - are still central figures for St Thomas'. It's a trump card in any rows in training.
"I wouldn't say there's annoyance because it wouldn't have been anyone's fault," Burke says, when asked about Thomas' failure to add a second All-Ireland title.
"If there's a clear-cut reason as to why it wasn't coming, there'd be someone or something to be annoyed at. I'd say frustration would probably be a better word I'd use.
"It's not too seldom that we get reminded of it. Lads don't be shy in telling you, if there's a row on the hurling field, that's the first thing they'll be telling you - 'Where's your All-Ireland club medal?'
"It'd be nice on a personal level for every young lad who hasn't got one, to get one."
Prior to last season, St Thomas' recent All-Ireland series tilts have comprised of a lopsided loss to Ballyea in early 2018, as well as a seven-point defeat to Borris-Ileigh in the 2019-20 campaign. In between, they did overcome Cushendall by a solitary point before a heavy All-Ireland final defeat to Ballyhale Shamrocks in March '19.
The narrow win over Cushendall three years ago underlines how tricky Sunday's game against Ulster champions Dunloy may prove.
"It was a cold, harsh day," Burke recalls of the Cushendall game.
"Parnell Park is tight and it's wet that time of year. We probably hurled well in the first half.
"But then we probably withdrew into ourselves then in the second half. They came back, David Sherry got the point to put us one up. They were through on goal, our corner back Cathal (Burke) saved it on the line but if they stuck it over it was a draw game.
"When you look at their (Dunloy's) past record, they've beaten Galway teams, Athenry and Portumna in the past. There's nothing in it on the best of days. And then when you bring in the bad weather and the time of year, it makes it tighter again."
"We had a relatively good year, I suppose, without it being too good." - Burke on Galway's 2022 campaign
Regardless of how the club season finished for St Thomas' this time around, Burke will be linking in with the county set-up before long.
Galway had a reasonable first year under Henry Shefflin - "good without being too good" in Burke's estimation - but were ultimately edged out in the closing stages by Limerick after a fine semi-final performance.
"Any year you don't win is disappointing. There's no moral victories, we don't believe in them. We were close to Limerick, fair play to us.
"But we didn't do it, we didn't beat them. So that's no good to us. Back to the drawing board and drive it on for the second year."
While Galway's form was healthy in the provincial round-robin and they subsequently ground out a narrow victory in a rather bizarre quarter-final against Cork in Thurles, in between, there was a jarring no-show in the Leinster final against Kilkenny.
While the Leinster title has never been considered the holiest of grails in Galway, they might be pegged as favourites in 2023, with Kilkenny experiencing seismic change at the top.
"The change in Kilkenny doesn't really affect me. And I can't imagine it affects too many boys in our camp. What goes on outside our camp is none of our business. We don't really care.
"We were probably very disappointed with our own performance in the Leinster final last year, given how well we had gone in the round robin. We didn't set the world on fire but we still got over the line and were still performing fairly well. I suppose there was a bit of soul searching on the way home from that loss.
"It's not the end of the world. We had a relatively good year, I suppose, without it being too good. The most important thing for us is to build on that and try to go one step further."
