Christy O'Connor: Sarsfields harnessed the emotion of Teddy Mac's passing in the right way

AT the time, it felt like it could be a turning point, especially given the guttural roar of the Sarsfields crowd in the moment and, ultimately it proved to be a key fork in the road, both for Sars and Midleton.

Mikey Finn had a chance in the 36th minute to put Midleton five points up and, while there’s no guarantee that Finn would have notched the score, Colm McCarthy’s block didn’t just prevent the chance - it also created the opening for McCarthy, Daniel Kearney and Daniel Hogan to engineer the score that got Sars within three points of Midleton.

One play never turns a game, especially when it takes a thousand small actions and interventions to win any match. But it can still alter the mood, dynamic and mindset of two teams when one finally feels they are getting somewhere, and the other feels like they are suddenly stuck in neutral. 

At the time, Midleton found themselves in a funk and were craving a score to snap themselves out of it. In the first five minutes of the half, they had got off five shots to just one for Sars, and had only scored once.

Sars had given themselves a foothold just on the half-time whistle with two late points but Midleton had a chance to collapse that platform after the break and shove the margin out to at least six, possibly seven, points. 

When they didn’t, Sars grabbed that initiative right off them.

Even after Sars shaved the margin down to two, and Midleton pushed it back out to three again immediately afterwards with a Conor Lehane free, Sars had clearly found a fluency and rhythm that they had been lacking in the first half.

Kearney led the charge at that time, scoring a point and winning a free. 

And when the excellent Aaron Myers levelled up the match, the momentum, confidence and energy had clearly shifted to Sars.

The slickness, sharpness and timing that defined Midleton’s play in the first half was absent as the second half progressed. 

Their decision-making was poor. They struggled to get their hands on enough clean possession. 

The scoring chances dried up. After having 27 shots in the first 35 minutes, Midleton had just 10 shots for the remaining 29 minutes (including additional time).

Much of that though, was down to Sarsfields, who were solid, sharp and clinical when they needed to be. 

Overall, Sars had a 70% conversion rate compared to just 51% for Midleton. 

Sars had a better conversion rate from play (59%) compared to Midleton’s 50%, but Myers’ contribution was massive from placed balls in such a tight game, scoring 8 from 8. 

Midleton settled much better and quicker but Sars didn’t help themselves by over-elaborating in possession. They only scored two of their first five shots but they left another couple of scores after them because Sars looked like a team that felt they needed early goals to win the match. 

They were admirably intent on going after green flags but coughing up both of those chances was even more costly when Midleton got a point off one of those turnovers.

MISFIRING

Midleton had a better structure with Tommy O’Connell sitting back but Sars were reduced to hitting long and aimless ball because they weren’t running hard enough around the middle to get their short-game functioning to the level they needed to. 

Midleton were also getting out too easy from their defence, especially on puck-outs early on.

Sars were also struggling to cope with Conor Lehane when he moved in full-forward in the second quarter. In that period, Lehane scored two points while he also had a shot blocked that led to a Ross O’Regan point.

O’Regan was outstanding in that first half but once Sars got their running game going and were able to establish a more stable attacking platform, their defence was far more organised and aggressive after the break.

Midleton couldn't sustain their manic work-rate of the first half, but their main shooters couldn’t get any change out of that Sars defence, especially in the last 10 minutes when they were effectively chasing the game.

Sars didn’t exactly shoot the lights out but they didn’t need to when Myers was so accurate from frees and Cathal McCarthy has developed into such a weapon, firstly by being so intelligent to be able to find pockets of space around the middle and, secondly by being so brave to keep shooting. 

Three early missed chances would have eroded the confidence of another player in his position but McCarthy never wavered in his conviction and ended the match with four excellent points.

Sars just found a way. Jack O’Connor was limited to just eight possessions but he still had his fingerprints on 0-4 (scoring 0-2 and winning two frees) from that supply.

Sars still had to rely on a couple of last-ditch blocks late on to ensure the victory but those plays encapsulated this success as much as any other. 

Moreover, they also framed the new identity of this group this season.

Sars always had the class and the talent but there was a steel fist underneath their velvet glove throughout this year. 

Much of that stemmed from the hard work and hard yards gained from earlier in the season. Yet emotion was bound to play a part in Sars’ journey and sense of mission too after the devastating passing of Teddy McCarthy in June.

And Sars channelled that emotion and motivation to honour and remember their fallen icon in the most perfect way possible.