Sarsfields' Jack O'Connor hoping to draw on youth experience for All-Ireland final against Na Fianna

History will be made on Sunday in the AIB All-Ireland senior club hurling final at Croke Park as two teams take that stage for the first time in their history.

Dublin club Na Fianna and Sarsfields of Cork will both be eyeing a maiden title.

Having fought through provincial challenges, the sides are ready to take the final step, but as Sarsfields' Jack O’Connor reveals, it’s not entirely the first time that the teams have met.

O’Connor, who will line up in the inside forward line for Sarsfields on Sunday, revealed that not only has he come up against Na Fianna as a youth player, but it was the Cork side that came out on top back then.

"I was playing in a Féile at Under-14 in 2012 and Na Fianna hosted the Féile back then," he said.

"So a lot of us had to stay with the players in their houses at the time. I was only talking to one of the other Na Fianna lads a while ago, and he was just telling me about a few of the lads who were the same age as me.

"It's kind of a cool thing really that, all these years later we're playing them in an All-Ireland club final after staying in some of their houses back then.

"We played them in a group stage. I think the first game we played them was a draw and we actually had to play them in a qualifier game to qualify out of the group.

"I think it was something like five or ten minutes a half that day, and we actually won that day and got through to the semi-final."

Sarsfields and Na Fianna have had similar routes through to Croke Park, with both sides edging out tight semi-finals by a single point.

The Cork outfit saw off a late surge from Slaughtneil for a 0-18 to 0-17 victory, while a 64th-minute winning point from AJ Murphy saw Na Fianna edge out Loughrea, winning 0-17 to 0-16.

O’Connor’s team-mates