THE LAST TRAINING night before they faced Imokilly this year in Cork’s ‘Little All-Ireland’ final, the hurlers of Sarsfield at last broke home turf with their studs. It was a training session like any other. Manager Johnny Crowley and his coach Diarmuid O’Sullivan reminded them of that.
But the symbolic nature of getting back onto their pitch twelve months after Storm Babet swept through Glanmire and wreaked utter destruction on the Sarsfield pitches and facilities was unmistakeable. They lost the final to Imokilly by nine points. It happens.
But nobody questioned their motives or where they were heading. Adversity breeds character. Sarsfield just strapped themselves down for the Munster campaign.
They caught a Feakle team that was stepping with wide-eyed wonder onto the provincial stage after so long away and mowed them down by eight points. On the other side of the draw were Ballygunner. They polished off the Waterford championship in typical fashion, before Doon pushed them all the way in a quarter-final despite the fast turnaround the Limerick champions faced.
In the semi-final Ballygunner looked more like their old self in putting double-digits on Loughmore-Castleiney. They knew Sarsfields. Had their number.
Last year Sars came through an emotional and trying campaign after losing the use of their grounds and winning Cork felt like an ending in itself. When they met in Munster, the scoreboard at the end read Ballygunner 2-20 Sarsfields 0-9. This time it was diffe.
