John Fenton is a legend of Cork and Midleton hurling on and off the pitch

Every now and again a club produces a hurler of exceptional ability, one who seems to have that little bit extra marking him out as a player apart from all others around him or in his position.

In a county like Cork where superstars are fairly common. John Fenton of Midleton certainly left a big imprint during the seventies and eighties.

John was one of the mainstays of the Midleton side that won the Cork intermediate championship in 1978 and after a few disappointing years at senior level they were rewarded with a win over St Finbarr’s in 1983.

In the same year Midleton won the Munster club championship before losing the All-Ireland club final to Galway side Gort.

On the inter-county scene John captained Cork to win the centenary All-Ireland final in 1984.

One of the many highlights for John was the goal he scored at Semple Stadium Thurles against Limerick rated by many as the goal of the century.

Presently John is chairman of Midleton, and his work rate speaks for itself as he was operating as a cark park attendant before the recent senior hurling game between his club and Fr O’Neill’s.

“Whatever has to be done has to be done and my policy has always been the nearest man to the job does it irrespective of what’s needed to be done,” said John.

The new facilities at Midleton GAA are state of the art as John summarized on what is presently going on at the club.

“We bought 36 acres of land in 2016 and we have been developing it ever since and the first thing we had to do was put in some drainage and then developed two pitches,” added Fenton.

In June of 2024 Jarlath Burns turned the sod on the new development that includes a full 3G pitch with lights and a new match pitch with lights.

“We only opened that pitch in March and that will used for games going forward but at the moment only a phased basis and we are hoping later this year to start the development of new dressing rooms so you could say there is a lot of work going on.” 

The work of his fellow committee members came in for praise for Fenton.

“When you are undertaking the work we are undertaking you need committed people as we are one club including Camogie and Ladies football and we have been working under the one umbrella for the past 10 years.” 

Midleton start with boys under six up to adult level and it’s the same with both camogie and ladies football that makes the complex a very busy one on a weekly basis.

Presently Cork teams, colleges and Inter Firm use the new Midleton facility and its serving its purpose for the GAA community.

Midleton recently started their Senior league campaign with a win over Fr O’Neill’s and Fenton is happy the club are going in the right direction.

“We were unlucky last season as we lost finals in Senior, Minor and U21 and to get to that level you need good talent and even our U16 team in both hurling and football were impressive so I am confident our pipeline is firmly in place.” 

The recent retirement of Conor Lehane from inter-county level will boost his club going forward.

“Conor has been our talisman for many year’s and we are hoping he will give us a few more and in my book you start with the club and you finish with the club and what a servant he has been to hurling to Midleton and Cork.” 

So after winning three Senior All Ireland medals with Cork what does Fenton think about the present standard of hurling?

“At inter-county level the standard is very high but at Senior club level in Cork over the last 20 years it has gone down big time.

“The skill levels and speed at intercounty level is incredible but it’s different from my time as this hand passing drives me crazy in the fact in my time we could drive the ball 70 or 80 yards but now it’s taking four our five players to get the ball that distance.” 

Fenton is not convinced about the present brand of hurling.

“I am not sure really but we have guys at inter-county level that are capable of getting goals so the Cork style suits those forwards.

“The support that the Cork public gives the present Cork hurling team is phenomenal so they must like the way the game is being played.” Looking ahead to the coming campaign Fenton believes it will be a tough one.

“What happened in the second half in the All-Ireland final was unexplainable but look that can happen in any sport and in my book Munster will be a minefield this year and its hard to predict what two teams will fail to make the cut.” 

There is little doubt John Fenton’s contribution to GAA over many decades should be acclaimed and respected.