Conor O'Sullivan: 'It seemed too far to imagine a Munster championship with Sars. It’s unbelievable'

The Sarsfields captain accepts the club's Munster record prior to this year looked "horrendous" on first viewing but still feels they got a "bad rap" as most of the games were tight. 

Sarsfields’ captain Conor O'Sullivan lifts the trophy with his son Shay. Picture: ©INPHO/James Crombie

As a teenager, Conor O’Sullivan watched Newtownshandrum claim Munster club titles and watched Erin’s Own contest them.

It was a provincial stage he could not envisage Sars conquering. It just didn’t seem realistic. Understandable, to an extent, considering when O’Sullivan joined the adult ranks out in Riverstown in 2008, Sars hadn’t won a county since 1957.

That local famine was sensationally ended with four crowns across the next seven seasons, but there was nothing sensational about their subsequent Munster efforts. They made no mark on the stage O'Sullivan once viewed as foreign. Just a solitary win across four provincial campaigns.

That became a solitary win in five campaigns when Ballygunner skewered them 2-20 to 0-9 13 months ago. The same Ballygunner they stunned on Sunday to bridge a 15-year gap to the Newtownshandrum team O’Sullivan used to go watch and admire as a young fella.

“I was only saying to my brother Eoin last Saturday that, when I was younger, I remember going to see Erin’s Own and Newtown play in Munster finals with dad.

“I always thought playing with Sars was achievable, I always thought playing with Cork was achievable, but it actually seemed too far to imagine a Munster championship with Sars. It’s unbelievable,” O’Sullivan said of captaining the club to a first Munster final win.

What he can now begin imagining is leading his clubmates out onto the Croke Park turf on All-Ireland club final afternoon. Sink Slaughtneil on Sunday week and that will be the 35-year-old’s next surreal reality.

“Again, it seems so far beyond reality to be talking about it or thinking about it. I’ve seen Slaughtneil playing, the Ulster semi was on telly a few weeks ago and we were all nearly saying that it seemed to be the best game of hurling played all year. We’ll have to be fully at it and hopefully there’s only one way to go from here.” 

Sars pushed themselves into that All-Ireland conversation by pushing out the All-Ireland favourites. The attitude heading into last Sunday’s provincial decider was a balance of taking the game in isolation but not forgetting how they felt walking off Walsh Park 13 months earlier when humiliated by the provincial standard-bearers.

“Last year – I knew everyone said it was a horrendous performance out of us, but that was Ballygunner not letting us play.

“They’re brilliant. Even near the end [on Sunday], we were seven points up and Pauric Mahony goes to me, ‘Well done, Conor,’ and I was saying to him, ‘Ye’re going to come back, ye’re going to win it’.

“I said it in my speech, and it wasn’t false platitudes to them, they’re the best club team we’ve ever seen. They’re unbelievable, it’s frightening when you think about it. It’s unrealistic for any club to look to copy what they’ve done.

“I do think that we got a bad rap – all the games we lost in the Munster championship, last year aside, were tight and the teams we lost to were winning Munster and getting to All-Ireland finals. We weren’t that far away from it but, at first view, it looks like a horrendous record.” 

Not any more it doesn’t.