Sarfields beginning to pick up form as training focus changes

While they may not be the front-runners in the current RedFM Hurling League Division 1 campaign, Sarsfields are still well in the mix as they shuffle their pack.

Sunday’s 1-19 to 0-16 win away to neighbours Carrigtwohill was Sars’ fourth win in six games, leaving them in a tie for second place with St Finbarr’s and Douglas, four off the leaders Midleton.

Johnny Crowley’s side have won the last three league titles – reaching the county final in each of those years too, winning twice. Their enviable depth is to the fore as the most recent win was achieved without four of last year’s county final starting 15 – Ben Graham, Bryan Murphy, Daniel Kearney and James Sweeney.

“It was obviously going to be tough coming down here,” Crowley said, “Carrigtwohill are after getting a few good results.

“It was a good old battle and probably something very similar to what we're going to get in championship in six or eight weeks’ time.

“It’s good preparation – I suppose we've cranked up the hurling training over the last three or four weeks and it’s been quite good, you can see glimpses of what we're trying to create and what we're trying to do here.

“It’s improving the whole time.”

Sars are assimilating a number of players from talented minor squads of the past couple of seasons, while there has been a modification in approach from a training point of view.

“It’s our fourth year now [as a management],” Crowley said, “and we grooved it this year, in terms of going hard in our S&C and our running and stuff like that for the first period.

“We’ve done that and over the last three or four weeks, since we’ve got back into Teddy McCarthy Park, we’ve started hurling.

“We’re only back there since around April 13 or 14, so we're doing our block of hurling now and I suppose that needs to be done, obviously enough. We're quite happy in terms of where we are as a team, I suppose.

“It’s just about growing from here now.”

While Sars do not have a player on the Cork squad, the flipside of that is that more players are available this time year of than might normally be the case. It has positives and negatives, Crowley feels.

“Look, I suppose, it's great to have everybody, that’s one thing,” he said.

“The other thing is that, over the last two or three years there, what you would find is that when the more experienced players like the county players come back into the panel, they give it a fierce lift and a fierce kick.

“I suppose we have to manage that now this year with that not coming through, but we still have four or five lads to come back, so hopefully they'll kick it on as well.”