Despite losing the county final earlier this year, Sarsfields became the first Cork club team since Newtownshandrum 18 years ago to reach the All Ireland senior hurling decider after beating Slaughtneil 0-18 to 0-17.
Sarfields manager Johnny Crowley was just delighted to get over the line but had great sympathy for Mark McGuigan, who missed a golden opportunity to win the game at the death for the Derry men as his shot blazed over the crossbar.
63 nóim #GAABeo @GACSlaughtneil 0-17 @SarsfieldsCork 0-18
Arbh é sin an seans deireanach?😬
A huge goal chance for Slaughtneil is blazed over the bar!
BEO/LIVETG4 AR @TG4TV 📺 pic.twitter.com/eDtYphazWy— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) December 15, 2024
“It was frantic stuff. It went right down to the wire. We don’t make things easy for ourselves, but look, from every passing game, we are just building something,” Crowley said.
“We’re becoming a very hard team to beat when we can play expansive hurling, but we can play it when we have to play a dirty game. We can play it when we have to dig out a result today.
Yeah, look, you have to feel sorry for them, lads. It was a massive opportunity. You don’t wish that on any player, but thankfully for us, it went the right side of the bar.”
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O’Connor Reveals How Sarfields Bounced Back From County Final Loss
Speaking to TG4 after the game, a jubilant Jack O’Connor couldn’t describe how being into an All-Ireland felt and how a nasty training session got the gears in motion for such a historic run.
"Yeah, unbelievable. To be honest, it’s hard to put into words how that feels at the moment,” O’Connor said.
"Obviously, the last two weeks after Ballygunner in the Munster final, the big question everyone was asking was, "Can Sars do it again?" And today, thank God, we did it again.
We took a week off after it and went back on Saturday. I can remember it being one of the worst training sessions we ever had since we started playing hurling. It was horrific, but we just said then when we went for food after it, we might as well give this all we have because there's only three weeks until Feakle. We thought we had a great opportunity, so we knuckled down and got to where we are, and that’s the main thing.”
Sarfields will now try to win the first All-Ireland senior club title since 2006 with Cork hurling booming at the moment with Watergrasshill and Russell Rovers also playing in the All-Ireland intermediate and junior finals, so the hattrick is well and truly on.
