Crowley credit Sars' desire as club clinch first-ever Munster final appearance
HAPPY DAYS: Cian Darcy and Johnny Crowley celebrate post-match. Pic: James Lawlor/Inpho
Ballygunner’s shadow has stood tall over the Munster Club SHC the past four years. Even for games on the opposite side of the draw to them, Ballygunner remain the talking point. Sunday, at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, was no exception.
All conversations surrounding Sars’ success in ending Cork’s eight-year losing sequence in this competition ended with who they would next stand opposite. There’s just no escaping Ballygunner.
Sars, for the record, don’t want to escape Ballygunner. They want to stand opposite them and try to atone for last year’s 2-20 to 0-9 Munster quarter-final mauling.
“Look, as I said there to the lads, we'll enjoy tonight. It isn't every day you get to a Munster final, it's our first time as a club in a Munster final and something we're very proud of,” manager Johnny Crowley began.
“We'll reset tomorrow night. We'll meet as a management team and we'll plan for Ballygunner. We'll train Tuesday and give it our all, whether it's going to be good enough, I don't know, but we'll certainly give it our all.
“Everybody’s telling me today that [we didn’t do ourselves justice against them last year] and absolutely, you can't have any excuses. It was a bad day, but we just didn't perform and now we have a chance to.
"At the very least we've a chance now to put a performance in and show that we're not as bad as that.”
Irrespective of how they fare against the four-in-a-row chasing champions, this Sars group have broken an important barrier for the club in reaching a maiden provincial final at the sixth attempt.
“It's a funny one because you look at the likes of Eoin O'Sullivan, Daniel Kearney, Craig Leahy and these lads. They've played 17 Cork senior hurling championships in a row, next year will be their 18th please God. They've only played six Munster championships, so this is the first time that they've been in a Munster club final and it's just reward for them. I'm so proud of the whole group.
“The hardest thing over the last three weeks was the worry of the disappointment. Having lost the county after putting in such effort and transferring our lives to hurling for that period of three or four months, then it's taken from you and you try to get it back again.
“We never questioned their talent. It was just today and for the last two weeks, we said that our desire has to be greater than our talent. I think our desire was greater than our talent today.”
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