Sarsfields Johnny Crowley hopeful they can learn from Ballygunner loss

Sarsfields manager Johnny Crowley didn’t offer any excuses for his side’s defeat against superior opposition, but one poor result doesn’t overshadow a successful year.

The Riverstown club end 2023 having claimed the Cork league and championship double, their first time claiming the Seán Óg Murphy Cup in nine years. However, Cork remain without a Munster Club SHC title since 2009 – indeed, the last victory in the competition by a Cork side was Glen Rovers in 2016 – and Sars never really looked like denying Ballygunner victory.

Crowley accepted that the Waterford side’s strong start made a tough task even more difficult.

“Playing into the wind in the first half, I suppose we were hoping to create a better platform than what we got,” he said.

“The concession of the goal was tough because we had worked on it and we saw it happening. I think it’s something we could have stopped.

“It’s disappointing. We had trained well over the last two weeks and we were hopeful, there was a good buzz within the camp.

“They’re a very good team and hopefully we’ll learn from that.”

While Sars didn’t get anywhere near the levels that they managed in seeing off the previous four Cork county champions – St Finbarr’s, Blackrock, Imokilly and Midleton – en route to glory, they found an opposition that were primed to put in a big display.

“It’s something I said last week in the lead-up to the game,” Crowley said, “in fairness to Ballygunner, they’re at the top of the pile in the sense that their journey is going on with five or six years.

“You could see there with the players they brought on, four or five guys literally just filling in superbly to their system, nobody changed it or anything like that.

“They’re a really good machine. We’ve had a fantastic year, an absolutely fantastic year – we’re county champions and it’s something we’re very proud of.

“We came down here today to do better than what we did but it is what it is, the result is there.”

It is a low note on which to end the year, but it is at least outweighed by more positive memories. The key thing for Sars is that this defeat will probe educational when they regroup for 2024.

“A hundred percent,” Crowley said.

“We knew coming down here today was going to be a huge task and we'd have to get 15 or 18 ten-out-of-tens to be challenging them.

“Today was one of those days where we didn't get them. We had a lot of fellas under-perform. I don't know what it was, but we certainly did under-perform and that was disappointing.

“But look, we have had an amazing year. We are Cork county champions, it is something we are hugely proud of within Sars and Glanmire. We will take a lot of learnings out of today, we'll enjoy the winter, and we'll regroup then and see what happens next year.”