Sars captain Kennedy back to the place he loves best

SO many pre-match player interviews these days are all about the banal, the predictable, the oh-so-stale. Oh so refreshing then to speak to Sars’ captain Alan Kennedy in advance of tomorrow’s Cork county senior hurling final against Glen Rovers.

“This is our third final in-a-row now,” says the 24-year-old keeper, “And it’s a place I love, county finals – when we won it two years ago it was the best feeling in the world, the best week, I’ve ever had. You can go away to your Ibiza’s, go away to Spain or Portugal, to Australia or wherever, but that week we had down here (in the villages of Glanmire and Riverstown) after winning that final was incredible altogether. We missed out on that last year, beaten fair and square by Newtownshandrum, but we’re back there again now, delighted to be in another final. We had a bumpy oul’ road along the way this time – the year we won it we won all our games and the final then went to the wire. This year we were beaten in the first round by a very good Midleton team but we bounced back and had a good win against Blackrock, a lucky win against Killeagh – a very lucky win – then a good win again against Bride Rovers, and in the semi-final, a win over the neighbours. When Erin’s Own and Sarsfields play there’s never going to be much in it at the end, never a lot of fancy hurling either, no great spectacle, and that’s the way it was, just a great rivalry. As soon as the game is over then it’s just a case of shake hands, move on.”

Ah now hold on there Alan – great rivalry? That game was as tame an affair as could ever be imagined in a county semi-final! “Well maybe, yes; five or six years ago you’d have had blood spilt, two or three fellas getting the line (sent off) – the old cliché, ‘I don’t want ye coming back to this dressing-room with dirty jerseys, I want ye coming back with blood-stained jerseys!’ The problem now is that we’re all very good friends – I’d be friendly with 90 percent of those lads, and they’d be friendly with us. Eoin Murphy, the Hero (Kieran Murphy), Alan Bowen – we’re all best friends, all socialising together for years. I work in Daly Industrial Supplies, Tool-Hire, and I have fellas coming in there for the chat from Erin’s Own – ‘We’re going to get ye this weekend’ and so on, but come Monday morning they’re back in again, ‘Fair dues to ye!’ A few years ago you wouldn’t have got that.”

That day appears to be in the past and it won’t be there either this Sunday, not against the Glen anyway. “No, definitely not! The year we won, in 08, we beat them in the semi-final, a dirty wet day in the park; wasn’t a great spectacle, but we count ourselves as a country team and there’s nothing like beating the city boys! They’ve improved since then though; they’ve beaten us at U-21 for the last few years, and in the league this year, when we were all missing our Cork players, it was one of the most high-scoring games we played all year. They’re a great bunch of lads, I’d know a lot of them from playing underage up along. They had a poor start to the season, like ourselves, lost heavily to Na Piarsaigh, but they got the show back on the road. They’re probably the story of the championship, really; if I were a neutral, after the year the Glen have put down (thrown out of the championship, reinstated, two drawn games)

I’d probably be hoping they’d bring home the silverware, but as the Sars’ captain I want to be up there holding the Seán Óg Murphy cup at six o’clock. I’ve followed their fortunes all year, you hear stories that they’re a one-man band up front with Patrick Horgan – not so, especially not in the last two games. You could put two or three fellas on Hoggie and he could still do absolute wreck, but it’s the other fellas around him, they can do damage also, well able to hurl. It will be 15 against 15, they’re back where they want to be, so are we, they want to win this final, so do we.”

What about the keeper as captain, how did that work out? “That was probably the biggest fright I got all year. We knew Fraggie (their own Kieran Murphy) was going to be captain of Cork and wanted to step back here. When Johnny Crowley (manager) was giving us the build-up to who they had chosen as captain I wasn’t taking much notice, probably looking out the window, and when my name was called the jaw dropped, couldn’t believe it. The low point for me was the loss to Midleton, I felt I’d left the team down by conceding a bad goal at the end, I was asking myself if I was the captain they needed. But I got back on track, things are going well now. Ger Cunningham was the last goalkeeper to lift the Seán Óg Murphy cup – it would be nice to follow in his footsteps.”