Sarsfields determined to make their mark in Munster

They won a third Cork county title in five years on Sunday, but Sarsfields are already looking to the Munster Club championship, says long-serving attacker Kieran ‘Fraggie’ Murphy.

As celebrations continued in Glanmire and Riverstown, Murphy said Sars had already spoken about improving their performances in the provincial competition.

“Obviously we’re going to enjoy winning the county championship, they’re so difficult to win that you’d have to knock fun out of it afterwards,” said Murphy.

“But we’ve already discussed the Munster Club championship and in particular improving on our last two outings in that competition.

“If you go back a couple of years ago when we played De La Salle, Waterford, we would have felt we had that game almost won but we let it slip and they beat us then in extra-time.

“That’s the kind of experience you draw on when you’re lucky enough to win your own county title again relatively soon afterwards, and the kind of game you want to make up for.”

Sars had only two points to spare over Bishopstown in Sunday’s decider at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, though the scoreline is slightly deceptive in that the ’Town got their goal deep in injury-time. Murphy accepts, however, that Sars will have to improve upon that performance if they’re to take the next step and win more silverware.

“We’d have to play better than last Sunday, but having said that there was a lot of confidence and a lot of calmness within the group in that game, even when things weren’t going our way.

“At half-time we were a couple of points down, but there was no panic. Pat (Ryan, the Sars manager) has made a point all year of keeping lads’ confidence high, and he kept that going last Sunday as well, we knew if we stayed at it we’d get the chances, and when we got those chances we took them.”

It’s Ryan’s first year in charge and Murphy is full of praise for his approach. “He only finished playing himself last year and I think there might have been a few lads in the club who thought he’d be too close to the players, but that hasn’t proved to be the case at all.

“The sessions are very good, he’s very good on the line in championship games, but a big part of what he’s brought to the whole thing is the confidence — he was a confident player himself and he’s put that into the players the longer the season has gone on.”

They’ll have to keep improving for their provincial clash — Sars will play the winners of the game between the Tipperary and Limerick champions.

“That’s going to be a tough game, obviously,” says Murphy. “Kilmallock won the Limerick title last weekend and they’ve got a good team with plenty of talent, while in Tipperary Thurles Sars and Drom & Inch will play in the final. Those are two fine teams, so whoever wins that is going to have a huge battle with Kilmallock.

“We’ll prepare as best we can and hopefully we’ll do better than we’ve done in the past in Munster.”