Sars aiming to improve Cork's dreadful Munster Hurling championship record
MUNSTER MARCH: Sarsfields captain Conor O'Sullivan lifting the cup after the Cork County Premier Senior Club Hurling Championship final. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
The post-county final conversation with Conor O’Sullivan is winding up.
The Sars captain has just quipped that he would never rank his children and so he’ll not be ranking his five county medals when a question pertaining to Munster is lobbed in his direction. O’Sullivan’s tone quickly loses its jovial softness.
“We’ll enjoy the next few days, but we’ll be giving Munster as much attention as we gave this,” he replies.
Cork was the only horse in the parade ring for Sars in 2023. It had to be. Before last month, they’d not been to the final in eight years. They’d not won it for nine years. They had narratives to rewrite and perceptions to reconstruct. They had a softness to shake.
Johnny Crowley’s never-beaten charges achieved all of the above, and a bit to go along with it. And so focus now spreads out onto the province and correcting their desperate Munster record.
O’Sullivan, Craig Leahy, Daniel Roche, and Daniel and William Kearney have been around the scene since the first of Sars’ four county titles in seven seasons back in 2008. From the four ensuing Munster campaigns, they managed a single win.
That lone victory is 17 years old this month. Clonara beaten 16 points in a Munster quarter-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The subsequent semi-final against De La Salle was level on 11 occasions. In the end, the Waterford men edged the verdict by two.
Two years later and at the very same stage, themselves and De La Salle could not be separated after the regulation hour and so extra time was called for. De La Salle again snuck it.
Thurles Sars had their number in 2012, while there was further extra-time pain in 2014 at the hands of Kilmallock.
Although the margins were minimal, Sars’ four consecutive Munster club championship defeats and inability to make a final are in no way out of place when put against the experiences of fellow Cork champions in the years around them and after them.
It has become commonplace at this time of year to restate the dreadful recent record of Cork hurling champions on the Munster stage.
And given the Barrs had no joy 12 months ago in turning a fresh page on that dreadful record, albeit the 14 men of Togher came within a Ben Cunningham missed 65 of forcing extra-time against Ballyea, we find ourselves once more having to document Cork’s lesser-known hurling famine.
It is 14 years since a Cork club was last crowned senior hurling champions of Munster. Newtownshandrum, in 2009, were collecting a third provincial title in seven seasons. Since then, feck all.
Even in terms of finals reached, Cork has fared worse than every other county in the province over the last 14 years.
Glen Rovers’ unsuccessful run to the 2016 decider stands as the lone Munster final appearance by a Cork club going back to 2009. Compare that with eight for Waterford in this period, seven for Limerick, Clare’s five, and Tipperary’s three.
More sobering again, the Glen's one-point semi-final win over Patrickswell seven years ago this month is the sole Munster championship win by a Cork club since Newtown’s final victory over Ballygunner at the end of the noughties. One win against 12 defeats.
Along with Sars, Carrigtwohill, Midleton thrice, Blackrock twice, Glen Rovers in 2015, and the Barrs last year have all entered the Munster arena and just as promptly been removed from it.
Several county championship winning managers have attempted to find a root cause for the annual suffering of Cork winners outside their borders. Consensus has never been reached.
The words of Glen manager Richie Kelleher from 2016 resonate seven years on.
“The struggle of Cork teams can be put down to a bit of luck, commitment from guys, picking the right players. There is so much that goes into it. It is never one thing.”
And so it falls to Sars to try and break the winless cycle. The experienced campaigners on Crowley's panel have their own cycle to break. The younger brigade come with no baggage at all.
But their collective task could not be more difficult this Sunday. Away to three-in-a-row chasing Ballygunner.
Could it be a case of a cycle broken when least expected?
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