Sars aiming to win county title for missing friends, their 'angels in the sky'
Johnny Crowley, manager of Sarsfields. Pic: Eddie O'Hare
When Sars’ 2024 campaign drew to a close above in Croke Park on January 19 of this year, Johnny Crowley’s plan was to leave his players alone for two, if not three months.
No contact, no off-season gym programme. No nothing.
Having been on the road for 12 months straight, Crowley wanted to afford his charges sufficient time and space to digest their nine-point All-Ireland final defeat.
He wanted to afford them sufficient time and space to reflect on a journey where they had succeeded in ending the county’s 15-year wait for Munster club hurling silverware.
He wanted to allow them to relax and recover in peace until such time as it was time to go again.
That plan of detachment came to a sharp stop when the panel, the club, and the wider community was hit “with the massive hammer blow” of Ray Ryan’s tragic passing on February 25.
Johnny went back into manager mode.
He knew of his responsibility not to a group of hurlers, but to a group of young men grieving the loss of a friend and former teammate.
“Ray was so popular with all the lads because he would have trained everybody, would have played with an awful lot of them. Ray touched everyone within the group, and I suppose just the worry of the lads and trying to be there for them,” Crowley explained.
“It was just keeping your eye on them and try and mind them as best you can, really. I'm not a professional in terms of that, but just your common sense of keeping your eye on the lads within your group and making sure that if you see something, I'd be very much reactive, I’d go to them, have a coffee with them, and have a chat to see they are okay.
“It's an awful circumstance. It's a tragedy that rocked the whole club, rocked the whole community. And you just try and do your best, really.”
Johnny and Ray never hurled together, although the manager does recall playing intermediate football with him in the Glanmire colours.
In Crowley’s first year in charge of the Sars seniors, back in 2010, Ray was his centre-back. The No.6 received an awful slap on the web of his hand shortly before half-time in the county final against Glen Rovers, a slap that required stitching by the team doctor during the interval.
“I was giving it loads at half-time in the dressing-room, as you do, and whatever way I looked around, Ray was down on his hands and knees, his hand was out and being stitched, but Ray was just completely focused on me while your man was stitching his hand.
“That's the kind of guy Ray is. Nothing fazed him. Everything was for Sars. Ray's performances demanded so much of himself, he demanded so much of everybody around him. He was a brilliant centre-back. He was a super guy.”
The same as Midleton and the premature losses they suffered during the spring, neither camp is short on perspective or the larger picture outside of their hurling ambitions.
Conversely, in two communities where family, friendship, and sport are so intrinsically linked, hurling and this Sunday offers the opportunity to bring joy back into the local frame, even if only temporarily.
“At the end of the day, there’s 10 adult county championships in Cork. I don't know how many teams or clubs you have participating to get them 10 Cups.
“So when you do, obviously it will be tinged with emotion and sadness, but you also have to celebrate your victories, you have to be fully appreciative of the efforts and time, and the joy that that journey has brought to many young lads,” Crowley continued.
“On Sunday, we're going out there to win a county, first and foremost, for every individual within the group, but we'll be trying to win a county for the angels in the sky, if that is the right way to describe it.”
Sunday is their third county final appearance in succession.
In keeping with the pattern between 2008-14, they’re hoping it will be victory, defeat, and victory again.
Even in times of rude health, regeneration is constant.
If the team is unchanged from two weeks ago, there will be three county final debutants in goalkeeper Ben Graham, corner-back Donal English, and corner-forward Barry O’Flynn.
Jack O’Connor, chatting to this writer after the semi-final win over the Barrs, said the three years under Crowley and the rest of the sideline posse has been the most enjoyable of his hurling existence.
The manager returns the compliment.
“Where I get huge satisfaction is being a friend of Jack and being a friend of these lads. Obviously we do everything and give everything for the match, for training, and for the club, but I love meeting the lads for coffee, lunch, or a pint, and we talk about probably everything but hurling. We have a laugh.
“I often say, lads, that's my county medal because I'm not going to get a county medal. My county medal is that I have a friend for life, and there's so much value in that within the GAA.
“Jack has had an incredible three years and the most enjoyable, I've had my most enjoyable three years, as well. Long may it last in terms of the friendships that are built and the memories that have been made.”
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