Alex Quirke: Midleton ready to defend county against Bride four days after winning it
Pat Horgan, Cork GAA chairman, presents the U21 cup to Alex Quirke, Midleton, after beating St Finbarr's on Wednesday night. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
Midleton U21 captain Alex Quirke began an unusual trophy acceptance speech with a fitting summary.
It's hard to know what to say, he admitted, when they have another game to defend their title on Sunday.
The Cork U21 A hurling champions could have a short-lived reign unless they win their Imokilly final against Bride Rovers at Aghavine (11.30am throw-in).
Otherwise, they will have to hand over the Dick Barrett Cup to the Rathcormac side.
"It makes it more awkward that we're playing Sunday. We still don't know if we've won it properly or not," said Quirke after the 1-20 to 0-18 extra-time victory over St Finbarr's.
"Obviously, we have won it now but that's only for four days. We've to go again and try to retain it then.
"It's a good feeling winning it but we'll have to keep it up and go again.
"It's different but we just treated it the same as every game."
The situation arose from delays to the other East Cork semi-final between Bride Rovers and Erin's Own. Their first fixture was abandoned in extra time due to a serious injury. The rematch was postponed due to fog before Bride won on the third attempt.
Amid county deadlines, Midleton were nominated to represent the division and progressed to the final. The window became even tighter when their decider against the Barrs was postponed from the previous Friday due to Storm Darragh.
Once the team photo was taken with the trophy late on Wednesday evening, recovery became the priority for Sunday morning's match.
Manager Davy O'Brien chuckled that the sandwiches in the winning dressing room were as close to a celebration as they'd get.
"Very tired, the legs are gone now," said Quirke.
"Nothing too crazy (to celebrate), we have to play Sunday again, so we'll take it easy the next few days and drive on Sunday and hopefully we win that."
Midleton had never led until the 46th minute but the switch of centre-forward Quirke into the inside line with David Cremin moving out was a turning point. Quirke created two goal chances in quick succession as they pinned the Barrs back with a string of points.
"The ball coming in was really good," he said. "Me and Peter (Barrett) were inside and we were able to retain a good bit of it. We got a few scores out of it.
"Dave out at centre-forward will just run all day for you and he'll get on the ball and score so it worked out well."
Midleton had an extra man for extra time but Quirke wasn't sure whether the red card carried over as the rule only changed this year.
"To be honest, we didn't know. We thought the rule was if they got sent off, they could come back on (with a replacement for extra time).
"We weren't too sure until we got out there. We didn't really have much of a game plan for the extra man but Cárthaigh (Cronin) was free then and he was sweeping up. It helped out a lot."
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