Quigley: There’ a lot more in this Sars team

Eoin Quigley wears blue, white and black this weekend for Sarsfields in the Cork county final, though he donned the purple and gold of Wexford during the summer.

Does he ever feel conscious of... you know... taking a Glanmire native’s place?

“I’m sure people have said that, but at the end of the day, I think the lads down here are competitive and they’re going to fight for their place. Last year I wasn’t playing particularly well and I was trying to fit into the team, I didn’t know the players around me that well. This year it’s completely different, we’re all good friends down here now, we socialise together, we’re working hard for each other.”

When Quigley married a Cork girl and got a job as a pharmaceutical rep covering Cork, Kerry and Limerick, the two-and-a-half hour drive back to Wexford Town wore away at him, so he joined Sars.

“You’d miss your team-mates at home and your friends, it’s a hard thing to do,” he says. “We won the county in 2008 and were beaten in the county final in 2010, we were there or thereabouts and when you have success it’s hard to leave. It was the right choice, I knew I was going to be living down here for the foreseeable future.”

Quigley knew Sars had won the county title in 2010 but didn’t really know what to expect in terms of club hurling in the deep south: “I probably was a small bit surprised with the standard of club hurling, it was so strong, the work ethic and the hunger that the boys have.

“Even the amount of gym work done in the off-season, off their own bat because they want to be as good as they can be, I was a bit surprised. Obviously, in my first couple of league games here I found it tough going as the standard was so good, the league in Wexford wouldn’t be as strong, it’s just all about championship in Wexford.”

That said, he points out Sars “didn’t fire on all cylinders against Cloyne” in this year’s championship. “Once we got over that hurdle, we had a long break and we took a few weeks off training, I was involved with Wexford too so I wasn’t down as much.

“I think we’ve been quite consistent all year but I don’t think we’ve hit 100% form yet. I think there is more in us and hopefully it comes out on the day of the final.”

That involvement with Wexford — how hard is that to manage? “It does take its toll, you can’t say it doesn’t. Throughout the year from March onwards I would have been going up every Tuesday and Thursday night. You’d have your dinner after training and wouldn’t be down home until 11.30pm or 12 and then you’re up for work next morning. You do get tired, but Liam Dunne lets us do our gym work down here, he gives us the breaks at the right times so that keeps us fresh.

“Obviously, we’ve been finished since July, I haven’t been up to Wexford now in two and a half months and it shows as I’m feeling fresher and fitter.”

As part of his stint this year with Wexford he played against some Sars team-mates in All-Ireland qualifier...

“I suppose it was strange alright. The bit of banter probably helped you to be more motivated, you’d come down here and the oul’ lads in the club would be telling you that you were going to get beaten. Cian McCarthy was playing but I didn’t get any shots at him, I was hoping to get a belt at him but maybe he was a bit too quick for me.”

Quigley has company from the southeast on the Sars panel in fellow Wexford man Éanna Martin. “The big thing for me and Éanna is that we’re both with the county team so we can share driving up and down, you’re chatting away so the time passes a bit easier. Having him involved down here has been great, we’d be good friends off the pitch and on the pitch we’d fight hard for each other.”

They’ll need to this weekend. Quigley may be a newcomer to Cork but he knows all about Bishopstown.

“I’ve seen them once or twice,” he says. “The things I do know is that they’re young enough, they’re very fit, obviously very hungry, this is their first final so obviously they’re going to be extremely up for it and very hard to beat.

“They have a few county players, I marked Pa Cronin in Thurles, he’s very strong in the air and he can pop up anywhere.

“We’re just going to have to get ourselves right and hope that we can play to our potential on the day, if we do then we have a good chance of winning.”