Midleton will look to build on minor hurling league title

For the Midleton minor hurling squad, it has been a case of progressing gradually over the course of a few years.

At U14 level in 2022, they endured a tough championship at Premier 1 level but then made the final at U15 a year later, losing to Ballincollig.

That was a lesser-populated grade than the even ages but even so, 2024 confirmed their progress: a league final defeat to Sarsfields only after extra time and then a narrow championship loss to a Glen Rovers side that would put it up to Sars in the final.

On Wednesday night in Cloyne, a further step in their advancement was made with a 1-26 to 0-17 victory over the Riverstown side in the Premier 1 minor league final.

While there may have been a caveat with Sars being short of full-strength, Midleton manager Willie Lawton was justifiably proud of his team in managing to claim silverware against sucha strong opponent.

“We were expecting a closer game, yeah, but Sars were missing a few lads and we were missing a few.

“We're playing each other in the championship as well, in the round-robin, so that'll be the next outing and hopefully see them again later on in the year.

“This grade, yeah, they've been on top of us all the way up, there's no two ways around it.

“They've been very strong and we haven't won a county at this grade.”

Ciarán O’Brien’s early goal sparked a run of an unanswered 1-6 for the Magpies on Wednesday, with a 1-13 to 0-9 half-time cushion not more than they deserved.

For Lawton, it was a case of good preparation and hard work earning the positive by-products on the scoreboard.

“I'm delighted with the lads, the workrate and the attitude, it was very good,” he said.

“That’s what we were asking for and we said if we get a result from that, we get a result, but the main thing is to have it right and to have a good foundation.

“The same as Sars, this is a brilliant game to have two weeks out from the championship.”

By the end, Midleton had 12 points to spare with six different players scoring more than once with Ciarán Kelly and Alex Molumby evenly sharing ten points between them.

They will meet Sars again on August 19 in Riverstown in the championship, though before then there are jousts with Carrigtwohill on July 22 and Blackrock on August 5.

Going in on the back of this certainly gives them a boost.

“We did target the league, because we were putting together a new team effectively,” Lawton said.

“We've picked up a lot of injuries along the way, so we have a few lads out now for the long term, so it's important then the next fella up is ready to go.

“We’re delighted with it – we’ve only got two competitions to win and we’ve won one of them. We’ll turn our attentions now to the championship so that we’re ready for that.”