Continued hunger for success keeps Sarsfields top of the pile

Three members of the Sarsfields senior hurling squad – Conor O’Sullivan, Craig Leahy and Daniel Kearney – have played in six county championship-winning seasons.

The trio were greenhorns for the wins of 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 and provided valuable experience as the club returned to the summit of Cork hurling in 2023 and again last year.

With the bulk of the rest of Johnny Crowley’s panel have been present for those two triumphs in the last three season, there are few in the Riverstown club’s set-up who are strangers to success.

In that regard, it might be expected that the RedFM Hurling League would not necessarily be a huge priority each spring – and yet Friday’s victory over Midleton in the final at Carrigtwohill gave Sars their fourth straight title. Little wonder that manager Johnny Crowley is so admiring of the team’s drive.

“The lads, they deserve massive credit,” he said.

“It's hard at the start of every season when you're going out, but I suppose there's two sides to it – there’s the fact that you're at the business end of a lot of championships, which is terrific and it's credit to the lads, but when you get the bit of silverware, it kicks you on a bit and it unites the whole group.

“I suppose it makes those horrible dirty nights in the winter more enjoyable when you get something out of it.

“In fairness to them, their attitude and their application to what they do is immense. They're such a coachable bunch of lads and they take criticism and they take praise, both in their stride.

“They listen to you and I suppose we like to have them voicing their own opinions as well. I think when that's been heard and they're listening to us, we're listening to them, it's a happy balance.”

Early goals from Barry O’Flynn and Killian Murphy on Friday evening gave Sars a lead that would never be relinquished. A goal with the last puck by Midleton’s Conor Lehane cut the lead from four points to one – and brought his tally to 2-11 – but there was no chance of an equaliser.

From Crowley’s point of view, there were good and bad takeaways as they get ready to face into the defence of their Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC crown with a clash against Charleville in Castletownroche.

“As I said before the final, the silverware would be an added bonus,” he said.

“The main thing was playing the game and trying to get something out of it. To be fair, I think both teams did.

“We did a lot of very good stuff and we did some poor stuff. It's just trying to iron out that and improve on the good things we're doing.

“You’re trying to get the balance right.”

Helping that is the fact that Sars have such a strong squad, meaning that choosing a team and matchday squad is a difficult task for Crowley and his selectors but that’s exactly what he wants.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” he said.

“Competition within the training sessions complements what we do then as well – anyone pushing will be rewarded.
“That’s the standard that they set for themselves, in terms of they know what they need to do, they know where they need to go. Any fellas that’s not performing in these sessions will unfortunately get found out.

“The guys that are pushing the buttons all the time, there's opportunities there for them. Wee want them to cause us headaches, to cause us problems as a management team.

“The more headaches and the more problems we have come championship week, I think we'll be in a better place.”