Sarsfields delivered one of the biggest shocks of the Championship when they defeated champions-in-waiting Ballygunner by five points to claim the Munster Club Hurling Championship on Sunday afternoon.
While to everyone else the result was far from expected, Sarsfields' selector Diarmuid The Rock O'Sullivan knew there was an upset brewing after the 'disrespect' his side had been shown in the lead-up to their game with Ballygunner.
Sarsfields themselves had been the victims of a convincing six-point defeat in the Cork County Final to Imokilly but progressed to the Munster Championship as runners-up due to the ineligibility of divisional sides to advance into the provincial championship.
While their lack of a county win combined with the seventeen point defeat the same opposition had handed them in last year's championship had the Cork outfit tipped as heavy underdogs for Sunday's affair, revenge-hungry Sarsfields certainly proved their doubters wrong, defeating Ballygunner 3-20 to 2-19 in a thriller in Thurles.
On a day where nothing came easy, it was substitute Shane O'Regan who deserved all the plaudits for the 2-03 he added to Sarfsfields' tally in the twenty minutes he played. The pivotal scores, would ultimately prove the difference between these two sides, with O'Regan taking Sarsfield's from a pressurised three-point lead, to a frankly uncatchable seven-point lead within fifteen minutes of appearing off the bench.
1 December 2024; 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
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The Rock O'Sullivan hits out at Sarsfields' doubters
Speaking to Eoghan Cormican of the Irish Examiner after Sarsfield's historic win, selector and Cork legend Diarmuid 'The Rock' O'Sullivan was enamoured with O'Regan's performance but was more than peeved about the 'disrespect' his side had been showing by the bookies in the lead up to Sunday's game.
Three-time All-Ireland winner O'Sullivan claimed that the 'distasteful' odds offered up by the bookies hurt his side more than their county final loss a month earlier, and ultimately spurred on the resurgent performance that placed them in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Absolutely no one gave us a chance.
When the bookies make Ballygunner 1/14 on and Sars 9/1 outsiders, it was disrespectful, distasteful, and that hurt our lads more than the county final. It’s the constant lack of respect we have been getting, so we knew we’d a performance burning and building. Today is testament to that.
1 December 2024; Sarsfields selector Diarmuid O'Sullivan and Colm McCarthy of Sarsfields 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
Sarsfield's victory on Sunday marked quite the turnaround from the same time last year when they succumbed to a seventeen-point defeat in the Munster semi-final at the hands of the 2023 champions Ballygunner.
This year's win not only marks the club's first senior provincial championship but also the first Munster win by any Cork club since Newtownshandrum beat Ballygunner in 2009 and completed the clean sweep of provincial senior, intermediate, and junior titles by Cork clubs in Munster this year.
Sarsfields and Diarmuid O'Sullivan will now take on Derry's Slaughtneil in the All-Ireland semi-final in January - a game where the tables will be turned and O'Sullivan's men will be entering as the heavy favourites.
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