Premier SHC: Five Millerick brothers set to be involved as Fr O'Neills make top-flight debut

When Fr O’Neills play their first-ever top-tier county hurling championship match this Saturday evening, there is a chance that one family will be contributing a third of the team.

Rathcormac is the venue at 7.30pm in the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC as the Ballymacoda/Ladysbridge side take on Charleville and five Millerick brothers – Joe, Thomas, Michael, Ger and John – could be in action. With teenage brother Enda also a promising hurler, in years to come the figure may even rise to six.

Once upon a time, such a scenario would be unremarkable at club level but the Millericks are certainly the exception nowadays. At 28, Joe is the oldest of the quintet – Thomas is 27, Michael 26, Ger 24 and John 22 – and he appreciates how special it is for them all to be able to wear the green and red.

“It’s mighty to be playing with your brothers,” he says.

“We all kind of drive each other on as well – like, if one fella was going bad, the other fellas would give him a bit of encouragement.

“We’re a very tight-knit group, so everybody gets on with everybody else but it's great to be playing with all your brothers, in fairness.”

The game will be a repeat of the 2020 senior A final, which Charleville won. The following year, O’Neills made it back to the decider only to lose out to Kanturk but the third time was a charm as they overcame Courcey Rovers last October.

As much as making it to premier senior marks the end of a long journey, nobody wants to rest on their laurels.

“In 2005, the club was junior so we’re after progressing a lot in recent years,” Millerick says, “and we’re just trying to play to the highest standard we possibly can and just give the best performance that we can.

“We want to do ourselves justice at this higher grade because we’ve put a lot of work in to

get here and we want to stay here, that’s really important.

“It has taken years of work. Not just the players, there has been really good chairmen, really good people on the ground, we have a new facility now, so there’s a lot of work going into that and a new pitch.

“It has taken years of dedication from everyone; From parents, from sponsors, from our board members, from everyone to get to this grade. So looks, we’re going to try and make the most of it now.”

A help in making the step up should be the fact that O’Neills have performed well in the RedFM Hurling League over the past two years. Finishing third in Division 1 this year is an achievement made all the more impressive because Declan Dalton and Millerick’s brother Ger were unavailable due to their commitments with Cork.

“It’s definitely a help,” he says.

“It's a really high standard of matches and it definitely helps going into championship after paying against the likes of Erin’s Own, Douglas, Sars, all these teams.

“We're really we're really hoping to keep our standards up. We're glad we stayed up in the league and we're glad we performed. You can’t read too much into it but it's great for some of our new players, we’d a few lads coming in this year now and they got a chance to play league matches as well.

“We have a strong panel and we have worked for a number of years on trying to develop that – in the county finals that we lost, we probably had a weaker panel than we have now.

“Playing at the higher grade definitely helps in bringing on new players and a stronger panel helps everyone.”

What kind of differences is Millerick – a sales representative with grass-seed company Goldcrop – expecting?

“Speed is the main one,” he says.

“If you make a mistake at the top grade, you're going to be punished. You saw the goal Kilkenny got against Clare, the defender coming out – a lower level, that mightn’t have been a goal.

“Your hurling has to be really crisp and your concentration levels have to be so high, because these teams will punish you.”

They certainly won’t be lacking in terms of preparation. Last year, Bryan Sweeney and Dave Colbert – who were in charge for the 2019 Premier IHC win – returned as joint-managers. In addition, Niall O’Halloran, who was involved in Bandon’s PIHC win of 2016 and Éire Óg’s IHC title of 2020, came on board as coach.

“In fairness, Bryan and Dave and Bob [Murphy] and other lads involved, they’re Fr O’Neills to the core,” Millerick says.

“They've been with us for years, from underage, so we know them really well. Then, Niall has brought loads to the team – he's really fresh and enthusiastic. He's a really good fella around the club.

“They’re a great management team and hopefully we can drive on.”