Loss of key club figures has fuelled the fire in Sars

Across the country, let alone county – you’ll struggle to find a club who have experienced such dramatic highs and lows.

Last year, the loss of one of the all-time greats in Teddy McCarthy preceded a first county title since 2014. What quickly followed was the decimation of their club grounds in Storm Babet.

Four months ago Sars lost Conor McCarthy. Then they were beaten in the county decider – denied back-to-back titles for the first time ever.

But they regrouped and showed what Sars are about.

After a nine-point defeat to Imokilly, Sars took down Feakle.

Then – when no one gave them a chance, the east Cork club beat Ballygunner, who were chasing a fourth Munster title in-a-row.

Now the achievement is victory over Slaughtneil – who are not easy to beat.

The Emmet’s have won the previous 12 Derry Senior Hurling Championship titles and five of the last nine Ulster Senior Hurling Championships.

Sars are now on the verge of history.

They’re on the verge of ending a 20-year drought for Cork clubs in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, but one win away from bringing the Tommy Moore Cup to Riverstown for the first time ever.

Again though, their achievements are brought back to one thing.

The challenges that the club have had to overcome in the last two seasons.

No matter who you speak to, they all share the same feeling.

“This team has faced many challenges this year,” Aaron Myers began. “We trained in Ballinacurra, Youghal, Brian Dillons – we only just got to train the week before the county final on our own pitch.

“But that really built the team spirit that you can see so far in the Munster championship and All-Ireland semi-final. We’ve lost a lot of loved ones in the last couple of years in Sars, Conor McCarthy as well being one.

We have all of them in mind when we’re training, and we try and do it for them.

It’s those figures who are spoken about, over and over.

Their impact on the club. The time and effort they gave to Sarsfields hurling. Their legacies.

They live on.

With each victory, and each title – Sars write history in the names of those they’ve lost.

One game of hurling remains – a trip to Croke Park.

“It means a lot. It’s a special place to be in. If we can do it for Cork and for the club of Sars, words won’t be able to describe it,” Myers admitted. “We reached our target. We’re going to Croke Park now in January. That was the goal coming up here and we got over the line just about.

“It was tough going into the Munster Championship after losing the final, it’s a bit of a weird feeling. The victory against Feakle really spurred us on, [it showed] that we could do something great here.” 

Sarsfields have definitely shown what they can do.

With the quality of players they have – the Riverstown side had every right to feel aggrieved after being written off against Ballygunner.

“We have the ability to do it. To be fair, since the Imokilly game, the management and players really put the head down. They’ve been fully focussed on first of all winning the Munster Championship, and now the All-Ireland final,” he said. “This team is so talented, especially in the forward line.

“It’s different every day, someone else has their day. It was Rego [Shane O’Regan] last week, today you see Jack [O’Connor], you see Cathal [McCarthy], [James] Sweeney – fighting for their life out there.

Whoever doesn’t perform, there’s always someone else stand up.

“We’ll be training hard now over Christmas – it will be a different type of a Christmas, but we’re delighted to have that.”