Thurles Sarsfields draw strength in numbers
Thurles Sarsfields have been a power in Tipperary senior hurling for decades — Mickey ‘Rattler’ Byrne, who passed away before they won the Tipp county title a couple of weeks ago, was an embodiment of that tradition.
But there’s something Sarsfields have now a lot of clubs don’t. You ask about experience ahead of tomorrow’s Munster Club tie against Ballygunner of Waterford, and Corbett offers depth.
“Sarsfields have a lot of experience over the last three or four years, of course we do. Good experience, getting to county finals and winning them. But the key to this, a lot of people outside the county wouldn’t realise, is our intermediate team getting to the last three county finals in their own grade.
“They’re driving us on in training. On a Tuesday night and a Friday night in the club we’d have 40, 45, 48 people training — so we can have a 15 on 15 game every time we go to training.
“The senior management are also over the intermediate team, which is another important part of it. If you perform for the intermediates, then, you’ll get a crack at the senior team. That’s what’s been said, and that’s what happens. Everybody is pushing everybody else, that’s the key thing.”
Promotion can happen, he says, and every player knows that.
“I know you’d always hear from teams that win All- Irelands and so on, players saying ‘oh the lads in the subs drove us on’, but with Thurles, having so many good intermediates means no member of the senior panel can say to himself ‘I’ve made it now, I’m grand for the rest of the season’. There’s a fella scoring eight or nine points for the intermediates? Then he’ll be looking for a place on the senior team, and in the last few years he’s gotten a place.
“That wasn’t always the way — the two teams had two different identities when they had two different management teams, but since Paddy McCormack, Tommy Maher and the late Jackie Griffin came in, they said the two teams would train together and the best players would get their chance. That’s how it’s worked out.”
Mention of Jackie Griffin brings back sharp memories: Griffin was the selector killed in a tragic road accident 12 months ago. “Jackie was part of our family in Thurles Sars and the club is very tight because it’s been so successful in recent years. Jackie was a huge part of that, a driving force because he was a driven man in terms of his career as an army officer.
“It was a huge shock. When you’ve someone on top of you in the dressing room or out on the field, and you can feel their energy — and then that’s taken away from everybody, that’s a huge blow. It was unreal. A year on you can see how close we are as a team because we’re bringing Jackie with us all the way. He’s a huge part of Thurles Sarsfields this year in particular: we can feel him with us, that he’s really with us.”
Corbett referred to Sarsfields’ past successes — how much pressure is there on them to perform tomorrow, given that sense of unfinished business at provincial level?
“Whoever wins the county final there’s a cup given out, there are lads from your club clapping you on the back, congratulating you. It’d be great in one way if there were no cup, if it were just another match. By that I mean the Ballygunner match tomorrow is just another game, in that you can keep more focused. You win a county, there’s a short break and then you’ve to focus once again.
“What I find at this time of the year is that it’s not the best teams that win the matches — it’s a lot colder, the ball is sticking in the ground, and the team winning the dirty ball is winning the match. That’s the team that wants it the most. Game-plans tend to go out the window a bit around this time of the year, you don’t have the hard ground and nice hurling you have in the summer. You’ve to win the dirty ball, to be tuned in and to be a little bit more aggressive.”
And a little more focused, as he says himself: “Anyone who looks past the next game — it doesn’t make a difference what side of the draw you’re on — is in trouble.
“In Sarsfields, we’ve made the mistake of maybe thinking of the provincial games in terms of, ‘look at the avenue if you win the next game’ when you have to be thinking of the next ball, let alone the next game. The next game is looking too far forward altogether compared to the man you’ll be on today.”
So what about tomorrow’s opponents? Ballygunner were imperious in Waterford and crushed Passage in their own county final last Sunday.
“They’ve been successful there in Waterford for the last few years. The last day out against Passage they scored 4-20, that’s a huge score.
“They’ve had a lot of wins, there’s a lot of experience in the team — and at the final whistle last Sunday, for instance, it was obvious there wasn’t too much celebrating, they weren’t going over the top.
“It’ll be a huge test for us because for the last few years we haven’t been able to get over this hurdle. This will test our character, no doubt about it. I’m not trying to blow Ballygunner up, you just look at the facts: they know what they’re about, and they’re on a mission.”
So are Sarsfields.
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