Jack O'Connor says Sarsfields ready to push on in Munster

It won’t be easy, but Sarsfields will be looking to end 46-year gap as they move on to the AIB Munster Club SHC.

Last year, the Riverstown club were Cork’s provincial representatives after they lost the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC final to divisional side Imokilly. Wins over Feakle and then Ballygunner earned them Munster honours for the first time and now, with the Seán Óg Murphy Cup safely secured again, they are once again on the glory trail.

As a result of Cork reaching the All-Ireland final, all of Leeside’s representatives in the Munster club hurling competitions have received byes to the semi-final stage. For Sars, that means there is a chance that Ballygunner could again provide the opposition - the Waterford champions must meet Limerick’s Na Piarsaigh in a quarter-final in a fortnight, with the winners hosting Sars on November 16.

Jack O’Connor, who won the man of the match in Sunday’s final win over Midleton, feels that the team will be better-equipped to face what lies ahead.

“Definitely, yeah,” he said.

“Even compared to last year, our performances have gone up a lot. We'll probably regroup now on Thursday or Saturday.

“The lads will review it as best they can and they'll have a plan in place for us so we'll take it from there.”

Having won Munster last year, Sars made it all the way to the All-Ireland final, losing to Dublin’s Na Fianna in Croke Park.

As disappointing a setback as that was, O’Connor feels that the fact that Sars were back in action again so soon - and then going on to win the RedFM Hurling League and the county championship - means there was little or no hangover.

“In a weird way, it's just been so full-on that we haven't even had time to stop and register what happened,” he said.

“I mean, we lost the final on January 19 and we were playing a league game against Fr O'Neill's [in the league] a few weeks later. So in a way, we haven't even had time to stop and think about the whole story.

“We've just been going non-stop ever since. It's probably something that whenever our journey ends this year, Johnny and the lads might move on or players might retire, that's probably when we'll sit back and realise what a journey we've had over the last three years.

“For now, we're just enjoying every minute we can together because it's really special.

“We're absolutely delighted. It's been an unbelievable three years since Johnny and the lads took over. The main thing really is that we didn't want it to end here because we enjoy each other's company so much.

“We love going training together so we really didn't want it to be our last day. That was probably the biggest relief, to be honest, that we've got another few weeks training together and stuff.”

And, of course, their journey will be characterised by their carrying of the memory of Ray Ryan

“It was devastating stuff at the start of the year with Ray,” O’Connor said.

“He was more than a coach to us, he was one of our very good friends. He was a manager and selector on my teams growing up. He actually appointed me captain of the U21 team in 2019 when we beat Midleton in the county.

“He's just a legend of the club and he was just always so friendly. He was always the first man to text you the day before a game saying, ‘Best of luck,’ and he'd always be the first fella in the club to shake your hand or pat you on the back, whether you won or lost.

“To lose someone like him was just awful but this makes up for it a bit because we know, if he's watching down on us, that he'll be some bit happy anyway.”