The only thing that mattered to Sars was winning the final - entertaining the fans was not their concern

Just after Marty Morrissey announced the official attendance to the TV viewers during his RTÉ live commentary during Sunday’s county final, Morrissey briefly spoke about nostalgia, referring back to what has always been regarded as the real golden period in the history of any county championships across the country.

Morrissey tried to transport his viewers back to the time of the ‘little All-Ireland’, when Cork clubs were the most dominant in the country and crowds in excess of 30,000 would travel to Páirc Uí Chaoimh to watch the Cork county final.

Live TV wasn’t an option back then but a hankering for those days to return is futile now; they’re long gone, for a variety of reasons.

The only time it appeared as if they may come back was ahead of the 2022 final when the Barrs and the Rockies met in a decider for the first time in 40 years, which triggered hopes of an attendance well in excess of 20,000.

The diabolical weather conditions on the day put paid those aspirations but an impressive crowd of 15, 165 still showed up to watch the Barrs win a first senior hurling championship in 29 years.

Despite Cork having the best club championships in the country, right across the board, the reality is that there will never be a bumper attendance again for a county final unless there are two city clubs marching behind the band.

A crowd of 11,740 is still an impressive turnout that the vast majority of other counties could only dream about, but Sunday’s attendance also has to be taken in the context of it being a double-header alongside the PIHC final.

Every club is entitled to their big day out in PUC but the reality is that double headers certainly don’t help the atmosphere for a senior county final, especially when so many people always leave after the first game. 

And the atmosphere at Sunday’s decider was one of the flattest in years.

That won’t bother Sarsfields, the best team in this year’s championship. They won’t be concerned either that this was one of the poorest finals in living memory, one pockmarked with errors and poor execution. 

They came to do a job. And, once again, Sars got it done.

Midleton’s chances were seriously comprised by the loss of their marquee player, Conor Lehane, and one of their best players this year, Eoin Moloney. 

Yet styles make fights and this final always had the look of a match-up with more potential to be a damp squib than igniting into a fireball of excitement.

Sars controlled the match. Midleton were honest, honourable, always hard-working, never giving up, but they were way off the pace in too many areas to harbour any chance of taking down a team with Sars experience.

Sars played well within themselves and weren’t hurling well in the first half, but the game could still have been over as early as the 25th minute if Colm McCarthy had passed the ball into James Sweeney in space as opposed to trying to beat a goalkeeper of Brion Saunderson’s quality from the 20-metre line.

Sars kept making unforced errors and turning the ball over but they got away with it because Midleton were even more sloppy. Across the 60 plus minutes, both teams turned over the ball a total of 64 occasions.

Both teams cashed in on that coughed up possession; Sars scored 2-8 off turnovers, with Midleton mining 1-7 from the same source. Yet both sides were still highly profligate with their overall possession numbers. Sars had 11 more shots (43-32) but the conversion rate of both teams was an identical 47 per cent.

It was obvious from early on that this was going to be a long and arduous hour for the Magpies. 

They only had four shots in the first quarter, two of which were dropped short into the goalkeeper. Midleton were slaughtered on their own puckout in the first half.

Sars scored 0-5 off the Midleton restart – when it could have been a lot more. 

Yet that was offset by Midleton’s struggles to get any grip on the Sars puckout, with the Magpies failing to mine a single score from that source.

With Midleton needing to come with a big charge in the third quarter to have any chance of getting the required foothold, they only converted five of 12 shots in that period, two of which were missed goal chances.

Midleton desperately needed a green flag at that stage. And yet Sars still left Midleton in the game until Sweeney scored his second goal. 

Two green flags was a huge return for Sweeney, but his assists for two of Jack O’Connor’s points were equally as impressive.

Cian Darcy was excellent too. Despite Sars’ control, and their defence being outstanding as a unit, O’Connor ultimately was the difference between the teams; from 16 possessions, O’Connor scored 0-5 and was fouled for three frees.

Job done again for Sars but one of the most satisfying aspects of this success is how they have regenerated the team; they had five county final debutantes, one of whom, Donie English, was one of the best players on the field. 

Another young debutante, Barry O’Flynn, was outstanding in the first half when scoring one point and being fouled for three frees.

Just two weeks after their minor hurlers defeated Midleton in the county minor final, Sars have never looked in a better place. 

And that’s a huge compliment to everyone in the club after all the heartbreak and human suffering Sars have endured in the last couple of years.