It would have been easy in late October for Sarsfields to pack up the tent for the season.
Having lost the Cork SHC final by nine points, facing up to a Munster championship campaign can’t have been universally appealing to the Sars dressingroom.
But the lot of finalists beaten by a divisional team on Leeside is to represent Cork in the provincial campaign, no matter how battered or bruised.
And so that is what Sarsfields had to do. Four weeks after losing to Imokilly, the Glanmire side faced Clare champions Feakle in a Munster semi-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, in which they scored the last eight points to run out 1-25 to 1-17 winners.
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The prize was a day out in Thurles against the champions-elect, Ballygunner. Only Sarsfields hadn’t read the script and pulled off a stunning 3-20 to 2-19 victory. Everything changed that day, all expectations shifted entirely.
Last Sunday in Newbridge, they dogged out a battle against Slaughtneil to win an All-Ireland semi-final by a point. In just eight weeks, Sarsfields have travelled the road from getting comprehensively beaten in a county decider to now preparing for a first All-Ireland final appearance.
“I remember when we took over the group initially two years ago, they were a group that had failed to get out of the group stages in Cork,” recalled Sarsfields coach and selector Diarmuid ‘Rock’ O’Sullivan.
“They were maligned, ‘couldn’t pull together, the group was fractured, it was going to be impossible to fix what we had’. But you have to make an environment safe for guys that they can come in and enjoy the surroundings and be able to hurl, and I think that’s what we did.
“The county final, yes it might have had an impact. But it was two years ago when we started this journey that we rebuilt this group, that no matter what happened we could take it and move them to the next level.”
For such a storied club, the tale of the 2024-2025 campaign looks set to play out as one of the most glorious chapters of all. They claimed a first Munster club title this year and are now just one victory away from the biggest prize in club hurling.
“Semi-finals are the ugly part, they are the hardest part, in a final the result will always take care of itself,” added O’Sullivan.
“We are in there, we’ll relish the opportunity, it’s a historic moment for the Sarsfields club. We’ll go up there representing Cork with our best foot forward.”
Cork will be competing in all three club hurling finals next month – Russell Rovers in the junior decider, Watergrasshill in the intermediate and Sarsfields in the senior.
It is the first time since Newtownshandrum in 2006 that a Cork club has advanced to the senior hurling final. The last time a Leeside outfit actually won the Tommy Moore Cup was in 2004, Newtownshandrum again.
“They say a rising tide lifts all boats. We knew against Slaughtneil we’d have to go to a place where hurling would win eventually,” continued O’Sullivan.
“I saw in the last three or four minutes our hurling shone through to create those couple of opportunities, but what a battle to get to those moments.
“Slaughtneil showed everything good about the game of hurling. A couple of times we pulled away and they were phenomenal in their efforts in coming back. That last-gasp opportunity – it just came so quickly. It fell in our favour, but it could have been so different.”
In some ways, the difference coming down the straight on Sunday was also the impact of the Sarsfields bench – Shane O’Regan and Liam Healy both scored points in the closing stages.
Craig Leahy was another sub who came in off the bench and made an impact, picking up Brendan Rogers for the last quarter of the game. Rogers was a constant menace all afternoon and Sarsfields tried three different markers on him throughout the contest.
“Rogers was phenomenal. We found it very hard to pin him down. He asked a load of questions, he’s a super athlete. Not only is he a supreme footballer but he’s a supreme hurler as well.
“We tried a couple of different lads on him. He caused us untold problems. Craig Leahy came on, he had been left out of the team the last two games. Being the man he is, he took it upon himself, ‘I will mark him’. And I think in that 15-minute period he did an exceptional job.”
For Sarsfields and Na Fianna, what awaits now is probably the most peculiar build-up to any All-Ireland final, a four-week gap with Christmas and New Year celebrations stuffed in the middle of it all.
“It’s very strange, extremely strange,” admitted O’Sullivan. “But look I’d rather have the problem and try solve it. It’s a great problem to have.”
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