League final defeat helped Midleton to learn, says Pádraig O'Shea

Friday night’s Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC game against St Finbarr’s was Midleton’s 11th competitive outing of the year.

A 0-25 to 0-17 triumph gave them ten wins from those 11 – but the sole loss served as a valuable educational tool.

That defeat came in last month’s RedFM Hurling League final against Sarsfields and the lessons from that were put to good use against the Barrs at Páirc Uí Rinn. Manager Pádraig O’Shea was satisfied with the response.

“I suppose we probably were disappointed with the performance in the league final,” he said, “but, at the same time, we learned more from losing that game than we would have, even if we had nicked it and won by a point in the end or something like that.

“I don't think we would have learned as much as what we did in defeat and it wasn't so much the performance, it was just probably our attitude going into it.

“So we took an awful lot from that loss and I think we brought it into Friday and I just thought, whatever about our hurling and everything, I thought our attitude was spot-on, the was excellent.

“That was probably the biggest positive we were able to take from today, the attitude was superb.”

At half-time, Midleton led by four points, 0-13 to 0-9, but had played with a stiff breeze and the Barrs had shown signs to suggest that they would respond strongly. It didn’t materialise though as the Magpies managed the game impressively in the second half.

“Again, I'll go back to the league final, one of the big learnings from that was just not to get too high or too low,” O’Shea said.

“In that game, we were two goals down after five minutes and, in fairness to lads, they plugged away.

“So, I suppose today we were thinking the same, no matter what happened. You're obviously up against an excellent team with excellent forwards, they were going to get scores, we knew that, so the big thing was just not to panic, stick to the plan, if they get scores they get scores, we stick to our plan, we try to get back the scoreboard at the other end.

“And it worked, I think in fairness lads they managed it very well even when the Barrs came at us, we were cool, we didn't lose the head at any stage, we were cool.”

Key to staying in front was the clean sheet.

“No, they probably had one chance at the end but the six backs were excellent, as a unit,” he said.

“I think Tommy kind of came back in and reorganised the whole thing from the middle, but young Tommy Dunlea there making his championship debut, I thought he was really good. Ciarmhac Smith, just back from a hamstring, excellent again, and Tadhg [O’Leary Hayes]

was very good on the full-back line.

“I think all of them – Cormac Walsh in the half-back line, around a long time, loads of experience, hurled really well, so I suppose the back six probably gave us the platform that we needed going forward.

“The two lads midfield, Mikey and McDermott, were excellent and the forwards just did what they did, they were accurate.”

Next up is a clash with Newcestown, who lost to Bride Rovers on Saturday night.

“To be honest, we haven't even given it much thought,” O’Shea said.

“Honestly the last few weeks was all about the first fixture – the first game of the season is just important to get a win and just get a bit of momentum.

“There was five or six played football the last round, so managing all that now is all part of it, we'll juggle it, we'll manage it.

“We want our footballers to do well as well, so we'll try and juggle the whole thing and stay on top of the injuries.”