Premier SHC: Sarsfields boss Johnny Crowley hails trio who 'lead the whole show'

Yesterday’s Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC final win over Midleton was Sarsfields’ eighth in total and the sixth since a 51-year wait was ended in 2008.

The sextet of victories since then has had a three-pronged common thread throughout – captain Conor O’Sullivan, Daniel Kearney and Craig Leahy – and they came in for special praise from a delighted Sars manager Johnny Crowley.

“Yeah, it's incredible, it's incredible,” he said.

“I think they've had ten country final appearances, which is phenomenal, but to be fair to them, they're the lads who lead the whole show, in terms of we do recoveries and we do gym sessions and they're always the first three there.

“They're so professional and they have to be, because when they're that professional, they give themselves the opportunity to go longer and go longer and go longer.

“I'm delighted for them – I'm delighted for Conor, the captain; I'm delighted for Danny, to give the performance he gave and I'm delighted for Craig as well.

“Craig works so hard, his gymming is just incredible and his effort, outside of what we do and what we schedule, he's off the Richter Scale.

“I'm delighted for all of them, but I am particularly happy for the three lads, obviously, yeah.”

For Crowley, it was a third title as manager, to go with 2010 and 2023, and the victory was made all the sweeter given that Sars bounced back from last year’s county final loss to Imokilly and January’s AIB All-Ireland Club SHC final defeat to Na Fianna.

“We're just thrilled,” he said.

“Any time you win a Cork senior hurling championship, you're overjoyed. The feeling has to be pride and delight. We're very, very proud, they don't come easy.

“We've been lucky to be involved in the last three years but we were hurting from last year's county final. I suppose it was the one thing we wanted after last year.

“We drew a line through the sand after January 19 and that humbling defeat in Croke Park. I think as a management team, the one thing we wanted was Seán Óg Murphy [Cup] back again.

“We felt we didn't do ourselves justice 12 months ago. I know the weather had a massive bearing on that but we felt we didn't do ourselves justice. This is a hard championship to win, there's a lot of navigation in it and we're just immensely proud and delighted.”

The defence of their Munster title is something that Sars will look at in the near future, but equally Crowley is keen that a win like this is celebrated, given that five of the team were starting a county final for the first time.

“Absolutely,” he said, “look, we have a fantastic group of young lads.

“You could hear them in the dressing room there but to be fair to them, the one thing they are is they're unbelievably coachable and they're really, really great guys.

“They have a fantastic way about them, they have a great personality. There's a great friendship within the group.

“I suppose after the All-Ireland final defeat, we took the break. The one thing that we were adamant is that we wanted to have a cut off the Sean Óg again after losing it last year. The fact that we lost it gave us a massive incentive.

“It's just navigating your way through the Cork senior hurling championship, which I think is one of the most difficult championships in Ireland to win. You've got so many good teams and you look at the teams that we had to go through – the Glen, the Barrs, Midleton, Charleville, these are all top class teams.

“We're thrilled. After the hurt of January, to come back and be top of the pile again is very satisfactory.”