Anthony Daly: Sars and Cork needed this dose of honesty, but slick Gunners are humming

I can understand why the Cork teams which have represented the county in Munster as non-champions have fared poorly. I was wondering if Sars would have any interest again yesterday but I really admired Johnny Crowley’s honesty in these pages during the week, and in his pre-game interview on TG4.

Johnny didn’t airbrush what happened; he said the first session back was so atrocious that he wondered where they were even going. Yet Johnny said that they put the responsibility back on the players to drive the bus. And I just felt during the week that, if the Sars players were going to be as honest as their manager, that they would be far better than many people expected they might be.

Having four weeks since the county final allowed them to get a decent body of work done, which Sars clearly had. Their attitude was spot on from the first ball. A guy like Daniel Kearney, who has huge mileage on the clock, really set the tone with his tracking and tackling. You could see in Danny’s TV interview afterwards how much it meant to him.

This was a huge win for Sars but it’s also a big win for Cork – they needed this. Sars have had plenty of heartbreak in Munster before but they also knew that this presented a glorious opportunity to get to a first final when playing a side that had just won their first Clare title in 36 years. They were at home too, which made a difference. Sars played some lovely ground hurling, which you don’t see anymore, but which is possible in Páirc Uí Chaoimh – even in mid-November.

Sars had huge performers, especially Aaron Myers and Daniel Hogan, and Brian Murphy had a super game in their defence. Their defence as a whole played well but they were still lucky to end the match with 15 players.

My Irish isn’t great but I could hear Donal O’Grady mention ‘carta dearg’ in his TV co-commentary after Conor O’Sullivan swiped across Shane McGrath, while Cathal Moore and Mark Foley were unequivocally in agreement with O’Grady in their post-match analysis. It was a no-brainer – it should have been a red card.

At least it was a penalty, which Eibhear Quilligan buried, but I still felt that Feakle needed something to keep them within arms length of Sars. I’m not saying that they needed the opposition to go down to 14 men but, if Thomas Walsh applied the rules as he should have, that should have been the case. 

Walsh has that style of letting the game go but he’ll have to acknowledge when he looks back that it should have been a sending off. It was a dangerous swipe. The penalty leveled the match for Feakle but having an extra man might have been the difference down the home straight.

That might sound strange when Sars were so commanding in the last ten minutes but it’s hard to know how it would have altered the mindset of both sets of players. It definitely would have given Feakle a lift when they finally seemed to have momentum.

As the game went on, Sars looked fresher, sharper and hungrier. Four of the Feakle lads played an U21 quarter-final against Clooney-Quin last week, which went to extra-time, and which probably didn’t help. Feakle have had a great year but a long year too. Reaching a Munster final would have been an incredible achievement but when they look back on the season, they’ll appreciate how special it really was.

Sars have a first provincial final to look forward to now but they don’t need to be told how huge that challenge is, especially when they shipped such a clipping from Ballygunner last year. The Gunners are already odds-on favourites to win the All-Ireland and it’s going to take a fair team to stop them, especially after such another impressive display again yesterday.

Their system and style of play is well-oiled and refined and was humming yesterday, going into overdrive before half-time when they stepped on the gas and just blew Loughmore away.

Pauric Mahony was brilliant while their midfield pairing of Paddy Leavey and Conor Sheahan was buzzing again. This was a disappointing showing from Loughmore but, similar to Feakle, it shouldn’t take away from a brilliant year. They have the football semi-final to look forward to next weekend.

It was an exciting weekend for hurling but I have to give a special mention to Slaughtneil and Cushendall after the epic they served up on Saturday night. What a game. What a contest. I’ve been watching Ulster hurling for a long time and, while I wasn’t surprised, this was a standard – especially in terms of scoring – that was surely unprecedented.

Imagine scoring 3-25, as Cushendall did, and still losing by five points? Nobody summed it all up more than Neil McManus, who hit 3-9, 3-6 from play, and still ended up on the losing team.

If Jimmy McGuinness can convince Michael Murphy to come out of retirement for Donegal, surely Davy Fitzgerald can talk McManus back with Antrim. McManus is involved with Fitzy next year as a performance coach but I know what I’d be saying to him: 'We need you to perform on the pitch’.

It was heartbreaking for Cushendall but you have to take your hat off to Slaughtneil. What a club. They produced a display for the ages on Saturday, but nothing would surprise you with them considering what they have done in the past, in both codes.

Talking about big results, Castletown-Geoghegan fired a massive flare into the sky with a monumental win against Thomastown – and by 11 points. Thomastown were second favourites for the All-Ireland but that lack of experience at senior level – especially away from home – surely told.

Na Fianna were impressive, while Kilcormac-Killoughey and St Martin’s got the job done. Leinster has never looked more open.

Finally, I want to wish Nickie Quaid the best of luck with his recovery after rupturing his ACL. It’s a massive blow for Nickie, and for Limerick.

Secondly, and more importantly, I’d like to pass on my good wishes – and I’m sure I speak for a lot of the hurling community here – to Darren Gleeson, who was forced to step down from his role as Laois manager after his cancer diagnosis.

Darren fought some huge battles with Tipp, and Antrim as their manager, but this is his biggest battle of all. I wish him the absolute best.