SARSFIELD’S player-manager Cathal Murray has laboured long and hard in the cause of the famed east Galway outfit.
He first made the panel in 1995 and, consequently, just missed out on what were the glory years of the club when, in 1993 and '94, they lifted back-to-back All-Ireland titles. He did win a Galway title in his first year, but was missing in 1997 through injury. It was a long wait for his second medal, gained last November. It has not, therefore, been a career littered with garlands, but the fact the 38-year-old corner-back is still as fired up now as he was when he was a fresh-faced 17-year-old speaks volumes for his spirit.
The Galway Senior Hurling Championship is as competitive as any around the country and, to reach this stage, Sarsfield’s have had to overcome Padraig Pearse’s, Gort and, in the final, Craughwell, who took them to a replay before Sarsfield’s emerged as two-point winners.
Any of those sides would likely be contenders in most county hurling championships across Ireland. Indeed, since 2008, the Galway champions have automatically gone forward to represent Connacht in the All-Ireland semi-finals.
As they prepare to take on Cushendall in Saturday’s semi-final in Navan, Murray, now in his second year in charge, notes that the Ulster champions have had a tough campaign and feels they will provide a further thorough examination of his charges.
“We’re looking forward to it - they’re going to be a serious challenge,” insisted Murray.
“Looking at Cushendall’s campaign - they’ve won very tight matches as well. They won in extra-time against Slaughtneil in the Ulster final, so look, it’s going to go down to the wire I’m sure. In fairness, they have a pedigree in this competition from the last few years, so we know we’ll be up against it. They played in an All-Ireland semi-final against Loughrea in 2006 and were unlucky as they played well in that game and, in 2009, they were very unlucky against De La Salle.
“But we are looking forward to it - it’s great to be in an All-Ireland semi-final and it was brilliant for the club to win the Galway championship after 18 years. We’ve kind of come out of nowhere to be honest to win Galway - we haven’t got to a quarter-final in Galway for the last 10 years. We know we’re up against a stern challenge - it’s a big step up.”
The two main men for Sarsfield’s, who were formed in the mid-1960s when two clubs - St Killian’s of New Inn and Bullaun - merged, are current Galway county hurler and captain of the side Joseph Cooney (son of the great Galway hurler Joe senior) and Niall Morrissey. The latter is the side’s free-taker and, although he can be prone to striking a series of wides in games as he did early on against Gort, he can generally be relied upon to split the posts with regularity.
These two stand out, but Murray is certain they are not merely a two man team: “They’d be two big players for us now in fairness,” conceded Murray.
“But we’re more of a balanced team - we’ve no real stars, we’ve no-one on the county panel only Joseph and we’re just a more balanced outfit to be honest with you.”
They do certainly boast a strong half-back line of Kevin Hynes, Niall Quinn and Ronan Quinn. And although they are small in stature in some areas of the field, they are a well-drilled team who are well able to employ rotation of other clever forwards to overcome this drawback. In this regard, Cushendall will have to keep an eye on the likes of Noel Kelly, Kerril Wade and Ian Skehill.
Sarsfield’s campaign began way back last April and, although that is undoubtedly a long time to be on the go, Murray insists there has been no difficulty keeping his players on their toes: “I suppose it’s hard,” he conceded.
“We just won the county final in November and we kind of didn’t take much of a break. But at the same time - you don’t get too many chances to play in an All-Ireland semi-final, so it shouldn’t be too hard to motivate them.”
