Sars skipper O’Sullivan plotting county final success from behind enemy lines
GENERATION GAME: Sarsfields captain Conor O'Sullivan with his sons Cole, Shay and Quinn who play Midleton in the Co Op Superstores Premier SHC final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Pic: Eddie O'Hare
On page 43 of the county semi-final match programme was a player profile Q&A with Sars skipper Conor O’Sullivan.
Nine pages earlier was a picture of the Midleton boys who’d be lining out in the half-time games. In amongst them, wearing their Midleton jerseys, were Conor’s two eldest, Shay and Cole.
Go make sense of that.
Conor, Caroline, and their three boys are living in the town of Sars’ county final opponents. Shay and Cole are already registered Magpies. Three-year-old Quinn will be too when he gets a bit hardier.
Dad has long made peace with them growing up to be Midleton men, but on a week such as this, and outside of any more half-time exhibition duties, blue is their colour.
“The Páirc Uí Rinn double-header in mid-August where we played Erin's Own, Midleton played Newcestown before us. The oldest, Shay, had his Sars jersey on, and the Midleton jersey on over it. The minute the Midleton match was over, Midleton jersey straight off, and the Sars jersey on show for the rest of it. They are gas men,” Conor laughed as he recalled Shay’s group phase antics.
“He had a non-uniform day a few weeks ago and went into school wearing a Sars jersey. I said to him, are you sure, do you want to put on your Liverpool jersey, and he was like, no.
“There are a couple of girls in his school who play camogie with Sars, so he loves it, loves the novelty of having a Sars jersey. I don't know if he understands it, but he loves the craic of it anyway.”
The Midleton smallies, accompanied by whatever parent is around, congregate for organised chaos of a Saturday morning. Conor got away with being absent last weekend on account of it clashing with Sars’ meet-and-greet in Riverstown. With no excuse for this Saturday morning, he knows he might just have to show face down in enemy HQ a day before he leads out against them.
“The lads will be Midleton hurlers, and while I love Sars as much as anybody, I would rather them play hurling than be driven up the road and turn them off it, so as long as they are playing and enjoying it, I am happy.”
Conor turned 36 earlier this year. He was 19 when lining out at corner-back on the club’s famine-ending 2008 county winning team. Sunday will be his 10th local decider. He is hunting a sixth medal.
Seventeen years later, the corner-back has been reinvigorated by this latest chapter of Sars success.
“Absolutely love it. Best thing is coming down to training on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The way there is always new 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds coming in, that keeps me fresh.
“I am better at home for having been down here and I am better down here because of what I have at home. I think it makes you more rounded and balanced altogether, so I absolutely love it.
“And I am at the stage now where I can bring the boys down with me. I love seeing them playing with the lads, they think they are on the team nearly. Just little things like that.
“The fact that most of my best friends are still playing, as well, I nearly take it for granted. It is such a good environment to be in the whole time.”
The environment and dressing-room he first stepped into all those years ago had, amongst its leaders and standard-bearers, the late Ray Ryan. Given their corner-back and centre-back roles, the pair spent 10 years in close proximity.
Conor remembers one championship game where Ray bollicked him at some point in proceedings. And they were winning handy too the same day. He was no sooner home and the gearbag thrown in the garage when Ray was on the other end of the phone apologising.
He remembers when his brother Eoin was marking cancer and Ray rocked up to the house one morning at 9am. He stayed playing Fifa with Eoin until around 5pm. Eoin was shattered and lifted by their PlayStation day.
“Ray was there for everyone. He couldn't do enough for you,” says the Sars captain.
“Everyone was absolutely shocked by the news. But we all have great memories of Ray. Ray has a legacy left behind him. He has three lovely kids and his wife. I remember walking into his house in the days after his passing, the first thing you see up in the hallway are four county medals framed. That's what Sars meant to Ray. Besides his family, it was probably the most important thing to him. He meant the world to all of us.
“It goes without saying if we could trade Sunday to have Ray back, we would take Ray back with two hands, and I am sure Midleton would say the same about Darragh [McCarthy]. Hurling means so much to us, but there are other more important things.
“At the same time, when families have those dark times, you see the importance of hurling and how people gather around, the support they got from Sars, everything like that. It works both ways.”
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