Midleton v Bride Rovers U21 final: 'It's like a boxer, two belts, the whole lot goes in...'

Midleton have won the Cork U21 A Hurling Championship but if they don't win their Imokilly final on Sunday, they will have to hand over the county title to Bride Rovers.

That's the strange situation the Magpies are facing and with just three and a half days to recover between Wednesday evening's extra-time victory over St Finbarr's and Sunday morning's match at Aghavine (11.30am throw-in).

Manager Davy O'Brien compared the situation to a boxer having to defend their titles. Either they leave with both trophies or none.

It's a "very unfair" situation, he feels, but one they will make the best of.

"You have to celebrate, it's a county, but you haven't two hands on the cup yet," said O'Brien after the 1-20 to 0-18 success.

"You go up, you got presented with it, but you're not fully over the line. We have to put it on the line again on Sunday.

"There's two cups on the line. It's like a boxer, two belts, the whole lot goes in.

UNFAIR

"I spoke to yourselves in The Echo about it last week. It's very unfair but that's the way it is. We'll get on with it.

I know it's hard with any end-of-year competition but I just feel the rest of the divisions, there was none of them being nominated.

"We'd to be nominated and now we've to go back and throw it all on the line and Bride Rovers are probably waiting in the high grass.

"That'll be a battle again so it is what it is."

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.

Recovery is all the more vital now after extra time was required to separate the sides.

"The turnaround is a killer but we'll address that when we come to it on Sunday," O'Brien added.

"We'll just do a recovery session. You can't do anything else. Fellas had cramp and the fact it went to extra-time didn't help the cause but we'll take it.

"We were a point down with time nearly up and we got the deficit back.

"I know they had only 14 players in extra time but we just set out our stall."

FANTASTIC

Winning the revived U21 competition is even more important to Midleton having lost county finals when it was last staged in 2018 and '19.

"It's a fantastic competition," said O'Brien. "It doesn't get half the credit it deserves.

"I know it's an end-of-the-year thing but it's brilliant and we're delighted to win it. At the start of the year when I took this job over, I said, 'I want to win a county'.

I've been on the management for this U21 a couple of times and we've lost two counties so I really wanted to win it this year.

"Hopefully, we can do the rest and do the business on Sunday."