Hurling in Sars is as strong as ever on the back of U21 county 

IT was very much a case of success breeding success in Sarsfields over the past number of weeks.

In a very short space of time, they took possession of the Cork County RedFM SHL title, the Cork County Junior B inter-divisional title and last Friday night they completed a treble when they won the Cork County U21 title.

It was very late in the season for the final piece of silverware but that did not dampen the joy of the management team and supporters afterward.

Team boss Barry Myers paid tribute to the effort that the players had put in and he believed that they had got their just reward.

“The last two years at this level in Sars was disappointing after having won a county minor title in 2014. I was tearing my hair out in the stand, beaten by Fr O’Neill’s two years in a row by 12 and 14 points.

“So when I got the opportunity to take them back over this year, I was delighted. We got that spirit of 2014 back and it has turned out now to be a fantastic year. We have now won three trophies in a short space of time and the junior Bs won three trophies themselves.

“I love this U21 championship but the only thing that I would say to the county board, now that Páirc Uí Chaoimh is built, is to try and prioritize it for earlier in the year."

Myers was delighted too that they had taken a few significant scalps along the journey to replacing Douglas as champions.

“Yes, we beat our old nemesis Blackrock along the way and that was a great win for us. There is a great spirit among these lads and the big thing for the club overall is that Sars are still climbing the ladder.

“We will look forward next season to defending this U21 championship and, hopefully, I’ll be sticking with them.

“This was a very important night for our club in terms of developing these lads into strong senior players."

A host of the Sars key players like Eoghan Murphy, Jack O'Connor and Liam Healy are all U21 again in 2018. 

The Riverstown outfit had a very strong year underage in general, despite underwhelming at minor. They lifted the U14 Féile and U16 Premier 1 titles, and were a late Luke Horgan goal away from defeating the Glen in the U15 county final. 

Club secretary Jim Murphy was delighted too that another significant trophy had found its way to Glanmire.

“Yes, it has been a great few weeks for the club. Three trophies in less than two weeks is very good going and it shows how the work that is being put in by everyone in the club is reaping its rewards.

“If you don’t do that you won’t have success and, in fairness, we have great lads down here on and off the field.

“This U21 championship is a difficult one to win, maybe even more so this year after it ran so late.

“You had some really very good teams in it and to have come out at the end of it with the win was great.

“I must pay tribute to Barry Myers and his management team, they did great work and the players responded to them.

“Killeagh/Ita’s were strong opposition but we got the big scores there in the second-half and got away from them.’’