Legend Teddy McCarthy the trigger for latecomer Cian Darcy's addiction to Sars

Sarsfields legend Teddy McCarthy is responsible for the belated introduction to hurling of the club's half-forward Cian Darcy.

Sarsfields players, from left, Daniel Hogan, Donal English and Cian Darcy after their side's victory in the AIB Munster GAA Senior Club Hurling Championship final match between Ballygunner and Sarsfields at FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Photo by Tom Beary/Sportsfile

The Teddy McCarthy imprint. An imprint stretching further across the field this Sunday than originally thought.

We knew the sadly missed Teddy was the man responsible for bringing Johnny Crowley back onto the Sars sideline for the 2023 season. What we didn’t know was that Teddy was also responsible for the very late coming of half-forward Cian Darcy.

In November 2022, and then holding the position of vice-chairman, Teddy said to Johnny, ‘Sure, why not have a go off it’? They were the very words he’d uttered to a 16-year-old Cian Darcy eight years earlier.

The local and Cork icon had stood beside Cian’s dad, Tommy, on the afternoon of his wedding. The pair had grown up together. The best of friends. Teddy would call up to the Darcys two and three evenings a week for a cuppa and a chat. A constant fixture in Cian’s childhood and teenage years.

Cian’s mom always reminds him how when he’d get home from school, he’d have this and that planned, but the second he saw Teddy’s car pull up, he’d shoot downstairs, flick the kettle on, and settle in for the entertainment and education doled out. Everything else in that moment was parked.

“He was so box office,” Cian fondly recalls. “I would always say that if you told Teddy to go right, he'd go left! My dad, granddad, myself, and Teddy would have lived in that room talking about everything.” 

Cian never bothered with hurling as a kid. Never went down to Riverstown and swung at a rubber sliotar as an U8 or U10. Never experienced the chaos of U12 Go Games.

Football was his obsession. A fanatic, to use the 26-year-old’s own words. Lined out as a striker for Rockmount alongside Caoimhín Kelleher. Was selected for the Cork schoolboys and later played with Springfield in Cobh.

Now, he wasn’t alien to taking a stick in his hand. When the Darcys hit down to their mobile home in Youghal during the summer, Cian was often to be found pucking around on the Sunday afternoon of Cork games. Any Sars county final, he was on the bank.

Around the age of 16, Cian had a sharp growth spurt. Shot up. The coordination in his legs suffered for it. So too did his football form. He fell out of love with the game.

Sarsfields selector Teddy McCarthy in the 2008 AIB Munster SHC semi-final v De La Salle at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork. Picture: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE

Enter Teddy, delivering the same line he’d later use to twist Johnny Crowley’s arm.

“Teddy was up in the house one evening and he was like, 'would you ever just give hurling a go?' He gave me a red mycro helmet and a hurley to go up. I went away up and gave it a go at 16, played with John Barry’s U16 team, and haven't looked back since.

“I would have been able to hit the ball, even if my striking was poor, although some would say I still can't hit it! I could hit off my right but had to scoop off my left. Had to pick up things quicker because I started so late. I'd even notice now, 10 years later, that I am still learning, stuff like how to win a free.” 

Such are the Sars underage numbers, they comfortably field two teams at certain age grades. Darcy’s was one of those. In his first year minor, he couldn’t make the U18B team. The year after, he was minor B captain.

Once out of the underage blanket and uncertain of where his still infant hurling career might go or tail off, he texted the then Junior B manager, Gearóid Duggan, and asked to be given a shot at half-back for the 2017 campaign. The response to that text is one he remains grateful for to this day.

“Gearóid, who has since passed away, saw the potential in me. He gave me my chance and I grew in stature from it.” 

The Junior Bs went the distance. It was one of three county finals a rapidly improving Darcy would line out in that year. He scored 1-6 during defeat to Kilshannig in the U21B decider. He then came off the bench as the club’s flagship U21 side won the Premier 1, injuries to current senior teammates Paul Leopold, Jack O'Connor, Liam Healy, and Eoghan Murphy earning him a call up.

In 2018, there was a senior debut. In 2020, there was a first senior start. The latecomer has packed a great deal into 10 years of hurling. Teddy would be proud.

“Yeah, he would. He was a huge influence. I don't think anyone would have thought at 16 when I went up to Buck Leary's Cross that I would have had the career I am having with Sars.

“When I joined, Tadhg Óg Murphy and Ray Ryan would have had big influences on me as well. Tadhg Óg gave me grinds in accounting, he gave me the pass for my first senior score. Still to this day, I'd nearly be onto them every day.

“I told Ray Ryan last year I was living the dream. Not to boast, but you are looking at yourself now and you have a Munster club medal, senior county, two U21s, a couple of senior leagues, and a Junior B county. I still pinch myself. I am in dreamland.

“I just got addicted to Sars. I just had this addiction of being a Sars senior hurler. And here I am.”