Premier SHC final countdown: Conor O'Sullivan proud to lead Sarsfields' brothers in arms

More than once during Sarsfields’ run to Sunday’s Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier SHC final, captain Conor O’Sullivan has been introduced from the bench.

With a wealth of experience banked, the 34-year-old has been able to bring a composure in the closing stages, with the Riverstown club seeing off three of the last four county champions – St Finbarr’s (2022), Blackrock (2020) and Imokilly (2017-19) – reach a first decider in eight years.

If O’Sullivan is to lift the Seán Óg Murphy Cup on Sunday evening, they will need to overcome the other corner of that quartet, 2021 winners Midleton. As influential as he has been as a finisher, O’Sullivan has not given up hope of being a starter in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday (4pm).

“I am absolutely pushing,” he says.

“I was starting all year and then I had a bad injury. I missed 12 weeks in the run up to championship. Then it was Cathal [McCarthy] that probably came in for me. What can you do like, Cathal is playing out of his skin.

“It would have been really difficult to change the team. I wouldn't expect them to accommodate me either just because I was captain.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed every time I am not playing. I want to play every match. At the same time, I am not going to create a bad atmosphere or kick up a fuss because ultimately I want Sars to win.

“I felt it was more important to show that if I am captain and I am not playing, I don't have the right to cause a scene and kick up a fuss and create a bad atmosphere. I was really conscious I need to keep going the way I'd be going if I was playing, because if that did happen to anyone else and they were dropped, I was hoping they'd have the same reaction to me down the line, so I was conscious of that perspective.”

The captaincy is a role O’Sullivan does not take lightly.

“It’s unbelievable,” he says.

“It is the biggest honour I have ever had. I absolutely love Sars. It [the club] means so much to me. The boys are my best friends – Craig [Leahy], Will [Kearney] and Dan [Kearney] are the godfathers to my three children. Eoin, my brother, is there. I have been friends with Rochey [Daniel Roche] since I was 10 or 12. Even the younger fellas, you'd be close to them too. I have an unbelievable love and affection for Sars.”

If Sars were to win on Sunday, it would represent a fifth medal for O’Sullivan and his fellow veterans.

The first four were claimed between 2008 and 2014, with Sars then losing the 2015 final to Glen Rovers. Did he think he would be waiting so long for another final appearance?

“That was seven finals in eight years and it has been eight years since that now,” he says.

“When you are in that, you think it is never-ending and that you are just going to be in the final every year. We probably didn't appreciate it at the time, but we had the likes of Fraggie [Kieran Murphy], Ray and Pat Ryan, Ronan [Murphy], Garvan McCarthy.

“They were probably more important to the team than we realised when we were that young. When we lost them, there was a bit of a gaping hole. The younger fellas became the older fellas in the space of a year. There was that leadership gap then for a couple of years.”

O’Sullivan and his ilk have helped to provide that, while the return of Johnny Crowley – who led Sars to victory in 2010 – as manager has been a boost, too.

“Johnny oozes charisma,” O’Sullivan says.

“When Johnny talks, you really believe what he says. The first meeting at the start of the year, everyone was just mesmerised by the aura he has about him.

“He managed us when we won a minor county in 2007, he was a god to my group of players at that stage. When he came in in 2010, we were still kind starry-eyed looking at him. Whereas now, we are more mature, so it is probably the younger players who have the feeling we had then.

“But even us, we are still hanging on his words. He is brilliant that way, to be fair.”