Cork hurling: Midleton have increased their depth but St Finbarr's will demand the best

Midleton have spent quite some time trying to catch Sarsfields over the past few seasons. Will this finally be the year they finally do it?

It’s the question they’ll certainly hope to meet with a resounding yes, and while they won’t be the only outfit hoping to achieve county success by dethroning Sarsfields, they are the side that have been left the most frustrated over the last number of years.

Their league final was the most recent chapter in the book. And that, narrowly again, went Sars’ way.

And so, while Midleton’s gap to Sars is tiny, it still remains. In an effort to bridge that gap, the Magpies have shaken things up a little under new manager Paudie O’Shea.

A number of the 2024 minors are now into their second season and they look a lot more at home in the senior setup. There’s no better example of that then Conor Morley who netted 4-6 in the league and finished as their third-highest scorer in the competition. Only club stalwart Lehane contributed more from play than Morley in the early months of this year.

Morley was also the only player in the squad to feature in all 10 games, though he only started three of those. The Magpies used 37 different players and ended the season with 25 unique scorers, the highest of any outfit in the division.

The range in minutes accrued across members of the squad also shows how much of the league campaign was used for squad building and increasing the depth of the panel, rather than on targeting results.

The hope now, is that that will aid Midleton for this evening’s championship opener against St Finbarr’s.

Killian McDermott spent much of the league campaign at midfield and was doing well until picking up an injury, but he returned in for the league final and should be good to go this evening. Along with Morley, Tomás Dunlea and Carthaigh Cronin have both made considerable progress, and are definitely worth watching out for this year.

The core of the squad remains the same, and they’ve got Tommy O’Connell to return to the fold. Tonight’s test will be a challenging one though, and will quickly show the Magpies were they stand relative to the competition.

Midleton’s league scorers:

Conor Lehane 6-45 (1-23 frees, 0-4 65s), 

Mikey Finn 1-43 (0-25 frees, 0-2 65s, 0-1 sideline), 

Conor Morley 4-6, 

Killian McDermott 0-16, 

Pa White 3-7, 

Dave Cremin 1-11, 

Paul Connaughton 2-8, 

Cormac Beausang 0-12, 

Peter Barrett 1-5, 

Cormac Walsh 0-7, 

Ross O’Regan 1-4, 

Aaron Mulcahy 0-5, 

Brion Saunderson 1-2 (1-1 frees), 

Cian Stack 0-4, 

Alex Quirke, Carthaigh Cronin, Evan McGrath 0-3 each, 

Luke Dineen, Seán O’Meara 0-2 each, 

Ciarmhac Smyth, Daragh Egan, Evan McCarthy, Sean O’Sullivan, Tadhg O’Leary-Hayes, Tomás Dunlea 0-1 each.

Players used an minutes accrued:

Brion Saunderson (558), Mikey Finn (543), Evan McGrath (513), Tadhg O’Leary-Hayes (500), Cormac Walsh (468), Pa White (452), Seán O’Sullivan (428), Ross O’Regan (426), Alex Quirke (417), Conor Lehane (408), Dave Cremin (391), Tomás Dunlea (371), Luke Dineen (354), Séadnaidh Smyth (337), Aaron Mulcahy (319), Cormac Beausang (305), Killian McDermott (289), Carthaigh Cronin (278), Ciarmhac Smyth (261), Paul Connaughton (248), Conor Morley (246), Killian Burke (230), Cian Stack (192), Peter Barrett (127), Evan McCarthy (120), Adam Fay (119), Seán O’Meara (66), Bryan Rossiter (65), Eoghan Fraser (64), Eoin Moloney (56), Cathal Beausang (50), Cian Crowley, David Scanlon (23 each), Nicky Coughlan (20), Daragh Egan (18), Josh Hogan (12).