Jack O'Connor continuing to impress as Sarsfields aim for a fourth straight league title

The 0-9 from play that Jack O’Connor put up was the best of Sarsfields' tallies on Sunday – though Luke Hackett’s 1-4 was impressive too – and it wasn’t the first time this season O’Connor was so relentless. He’s scored 2-39 so far in the league, an average of 5.61 points per game. Only one of those scores came from a placed ball, the free against O’Neill’s which that ensured a double digit return.

Since being left out of the Cork panel in 2026, he's been exceptional with the club. Whether he'll be able to play his way back into the Cork setup remains to be seen, but he's certainly been making a point with his performances so far.

“Jack has been excellent for us for the last three years, since I’ve been involved,” Crowley said. “He's probably the best club player in Cork, and I don't say that lightly.

“He's been outstanding, he's been our talisman in a lot of games, a lot of championship games.

“He's a great guy, he's really knuckled down again this year. Obviously he's played a lot of games with us in the club, he's a great leader, he's a great guy in the dressing room, he's a great guy in training, he sets standards.

“The lads follow, but we've 10 or 12 Jack O'Connors. If a guy isn't putting it in training or putting it in a game, be it a challenge game or a league game, I’ll go at him or [Diarmuid O’Sullivan] Sully will go at him, and the lads go at each other as well, which is good.

“You have to have that leadership when the whistle is blown. It's a good camp.”

For three straight seasons, Sarsfields have found themselves ending the first half of the year with silverware, as league champions. In two of those three seasons, they’ve gone onto taste Premier Senior championship glory. In the other, they were beaten finalists.

And once again, they find themselves in another decider. A final appearance which looked so unlikely after two defeats in their first four games.

And here they are, qualified for the final with a game to spare, and set to face Midleton again, but not in the usual championship backdrop.

Year after year Johnny Crowley’s side continue to raise the standards in Cork club hurling. They’ve been the team to beat for a while and that looks like it will continue again into this year’s championship campaign.

Fr O’Neill’s were very much depleted in their clash on Sunday (Declan Dalton, Ger Millerick, Dan Harrington, Mike Millerick, Mark O’Keeffe, both Paudie O’Sullivan and Johnny Swayne – their first and second choice goalkeepers – were all absent) but Sarsfields performance was immense.

Their scoring power was seriously impressive, and the pace of their play in particular.

“To be fair, O’Neill’s were down on numbers,” said Sars manager Johnny Crowley after the win. “But I suppose we can only do what we have to do ourselves. I suppose the result – it's good – it’s two points and that gives us the league final again.

“It’s good in terms of preparation for championship, you've got a really good game to look forward to.” 

A key feature of Sars league campaign has been the fluidity around the positioning of their forwards. Everyone’s rotated around the full and half forward line, and it had a notable effect again in their win over O’Neill’s.

“I suppose we're just trying to get the forwards to work. I suppose the new game of hurling has changed in terms of is a wing forward a wing forward anymore? Is a full forward a full forward anymore? It's that work ethic and that movement within a system.

“If you're working hard enough within that system, without complicating it, you shouldn't have a position as such,” Crowley explained. “It's just about that, and I suppose trying to develop that and what not.

“We did focus very much so in the first six or eight weeks on fitness. We had done very little hurling, but we've done quite a bit there over the last six or eight weeks. We've knuckled down, and we've a lot more to do, we've a lot of work to do.

“I don't think we're anywhere near where we want to be in terms of championship. At the end of the day, the league is a stepping stone to a championship, and it’s about how you set things up.”