Midleton GAA Club

28 October, 2018

Senior Hurling
Last Sunday afternoon we returned to Walsh Park, Waterford after thirty five years when we first competed in the Munster Club Senior Hurling Championship, unfortunately the result did not go our way this time out losing out to Ballygunner by 1-18 to 2-13.
We got off to a slow start and the concession of a number of frees in the first twenty minutes had us trailing by eight points to five. However we thundered into the game when Conor Lehane billowed the net from a 21 yard free, a few lovely points resulting from great team play had us ahead by the minimum approaching half time. A sublime piece of inter play saw Tommy O’Connell off load to Cormac Beausang who burst through the middle of their defence and buried the ball low into the net. When the whistle went for the halftime break we deservedly led by 2-08 to 0-10.
They got off to a similar start to the second half and reduced the deficit quite quickly but still we managed to hold the lead with a little over ten minutes to go. Then the pivotal moment of the second half came with a Ballygunner goal, this was followed by a number of converted free’s and it left us chasing the game. We fought bravely as we have all year to the very end but the closest we could get to them was two points, this ultimately was the difference in the end.
No words from us will console the players and management following this narrow defeat when at times we played some of our best hurling of the year. Our club executive, members and supporters I’m sure are extremely proud of the lads and the great year they have given us.
Thanks to the management team of Paddy Fitzgerald, Terence Mc Carthy, Ger Fitzgerald, Sean O’Brien, Peter Smith and their backroom team for their great efforts all year long.
Team: Tommy Wallace, Eoghan Moloney, Finbar O’Mahony, Seanaidh Smyth, James Nagle (0-01), Sean O’Leary Hayes, Luke Dineen (0-01), Seamus O’Farrell, Paul Haughney, Cormac Walsh (0-03), Luke O’Farrell (0-01), Cormac Beausang (1-02, 1 sideline), Patrick White (0-01), Conor Lehane (1-04, 3 free’s) & Tommy O’Connell. Subs used Ross O’Regan, Garan Manley & Aidan Ryan. 

Check out Alan Donegan's photos HERE

Junior Hurling
We played Fr O’ Neills at home last Saturday afternoon in Round 2 of the East Cork Junior C Championship and won by 2-11 to 2-08.
Team: Brian Behan, Jerome Curtin, Oisin Cotter, Barry Fitzgerald, Robbie Barry, Peter Smith, Ronan Lynch, Andrew Rea, Fergus Wade, Coran Swayne, Aonghus Cotter, Luke Smith, Willie O'Brien, Davy O'Brien and Shane Goulding.
Subs: Christopher Power, Evan Rowlands, Mark Daly, Ryan O' Riordan, Eoin Ferriter, Christian Daly, Declan Mc Inerney and Aidan Moloney.

Fixtures (Cluichí)
Wednesday 31st Fe21 County Football s/final v Charleville in Mourneabbey @ 7.30pm ET
Friday 9th or Wednesday 14th November Fe21 Premier 1 Hurling Championship v Duhallow or Na Piarsaigh @ 7.30pm
(Please note these games may change and will be updated on our website.)  

Camogie (Camógaíochta)
Training: U14/U16 Tuesday 6.30pm -7.30pm Ballinacurra GAA Club & U16 Friday 7.20pm – 8pm Caherlag, Erin’s Own GAA Club.
Fixture: U 14 League semi-final v Ballinhassig Saturday 3rd November in Midleton @ 2.30pm.

Ladies Football (Peil na mBan)
East Cork U16 Semi Final v St Colman’s is on Nov 4th at 11.30am at Midleton.
There will be No Training this Bank Holiday Monday we will return Monday week.
A text will be sent to all Parents confirming venue and times.
Keep up to date on all news from our Club on Facebook and Twitter.
Hard luck to the girls from Gaelscoil Mainistir na Corann who were defeated in the Sciath Na Scoil Final on Thursday.

Annual General Meetings
The following dates have been confirmed for the various AGM’s;
Wednesday 14th November Camogie AGM
Wednesday 21st November Juvenile AGM
Wednesday 28th November Ladies Football AGM
Tuesday 4th December Hurling  & Football AGM
There are a number of current officers across the various clubs standing down in the coming year so it will be important that others make themselves available.

Gaa Golf Society
Our Christmas Hamper competition kindly sponsored by Patrick O’ Farrell of O’ Farrell Butchers took place last Saturday at East Cork Golf Club and the results were as follows;
Winner: Pat O’Brien, Category 1 – 1st Francie Maher, 2nd Mark Carroll & 3rd Jerry O’Farrell
Category 2 – 1st Dan Buckley, 2nd Hans Bauman & 3rd Liam Williams
Category 3 – 1st Michael Hennessy, 2nd John Droog & 3rd Tom Mintern
Front 9 – Michael Crotty, Back 9 – Liam Walsh & Visitor Paddy Beirne.
The final outing of the year will take place on Saturday 10th of November at East Cork Golf Club from 12-1.30pm, this is a re fixture of the twice cancelled outing and it’s also for the Paddy Hayes Memorial trophy.

Lotto (An Lató)
Our Lotto Jackpot was €1,800 and there was no winner, the Lucky dip winners were Mia Walsh, Michael J O’Regan, Maureen Laffan, Nuala Barrett & Sharon O’Driscoll, next week’s Jackpot will be €2,000.
Tickets are on sale at the Club Bar, O‘Neills Bar, Linehan’s Bar, Maple Leaf Bar, O’ Farrell’s Butchers, Frank Murphy Butchers, Pat Walsh Paints, Chadwicks, Teach Beag, Niall Mac’s Bar & Wallis’s Bar. Our Online Lotto is now available, logon to the Club homepage www.midletongaa.com to purchase your ticket.

BINGO – Friday at 8 pm. Usual jackpot plus sheet prizes*, Green €360, Blue €500, Pink €690.* conditions apply. Everybody welcome.

Juvenile

Fe 12
Clonmult Park on Saturday morning was bathed in sunshine for the annual James O’Brien Hurling Tournament but instead of the balmy conditions we have been accustomed to it was chilly breezy 7 degrees.  Proceedings began with us taking on Kiltha Óg, two twenty minute halves with all in hurling rules. They started brightly and had us on the back foot from the off, they knocked over a fine point from play before they found the net after a mazy run from one of their midfielders. We seemed to be asleep in most positions apart from impressive goalkeeper Odhran Rabbitte who kept us in the game with some impressive ball handling and clearances.  During this pressure period Kiltha added a point from a 65. As half time approached we finally got off the mark with Captain Thomas Dunlea slotting over a fine point from a free.  Having played with the strong breeze we found ourselves trailing by 4 points at half time.  After a very frank discussion at half time the lads were a different side in the second half, a Daniel Garde goal from play helped us to settle, this was quickly followed by a pointed free from Tomas Dunlea, the impressive Darragh Egan added a well taken point from play. Kiltha regained the lead with a point from play before Darragh Egan again responded with a well taken point quickly followed by a Thomas Dunlea point but some pressure from Kiltha saw them add another point from play, Kiltha refused to go away and found the back of the net again after some fierce gaol mouth action, we now found ourselves behind again but responded impressively with Eoghan Fraser firing a ball into Luca Brodkorb who took on his man and goaled from a very narrow angle.  Daniel Garde then added appoint from play. The game was ending in a welter of excitement as a series of Kiltha attacks were repelled with some strong defending from John Paul McManus, Ben Fitzpatrick and Sennan Gleeson.  Yohanis Mehigan and Paddy Walsh were doing their best to stem the tide Jack Foley, Darragh Egan and James Mc Sweeney were working hard to keep the ball going to our inside line of Jake Kirby, Daniel Garde and Shane McNamara who were keeping the Kiltha backs busy.  The game ended on a score line of Midleton 2.06,  Kiltha Óg 2.04. 
After a short break Kiltha then took on Ballinora, this was a very tight tense match with scores at a premium,  Kiltha held a narrow lead at half time but it was a dogged  Ballinora that took to the field in the second half,  at this stage the breeze had picked up,  a goal was always going to be important in a low scoring match and it was Kiltha Óg that found the back of the net , they ran out narrow winners on a score of Kiltha Óg 1.03 Ballinora 0.03.  The third and final match saw us take on Ballinora with simple mathematics if we won the match we won the tournament.   For the many supporters watching it was getting very chilly but the action on the field was red hot with Midleton taking the game by the scruff of the net, a monster delivery from midfielder James Mc Sweeney looked to be heading over the bar but deceived the Ballinora keeper and dropped into the top corner of the net to give us a great start.  Fionn Kelly who was seeing a lot of the ball teamed up with Darragh Egan and Darragh made no mistake splitting the stick for an impressive point.   Conor Morley was now thundering into the game and following some strong play   another Midleton attack saw James Mc Sweeney pick the ball and head straight for goal, after breaking through the Ballinora defence he cracked the ball to the back of the net, this was followed by a fine point from Tomas Dunlea to leave us lead at half time on a score of Midleton 2.03 Ballinora no score.  Any thoughts  of an easy victory were quickly banished , Ballinora went on the offensive, once again Odhran Rabbitte repelled several attacks assisted by Callum Mc Sweeney with Adam O Connor now adding much needed support to our defence   but eventually Ballinora goaled  quickly followed by a fine point from play. Our lead was now diminishing, both sides were trying might and mane to gain the upper hand   and the exchanges were fierce. Despite several scoring opportunities we found it hard to add to our tally.  Daniel Shine was causing problems for the Ballinora defence Odhran Dennigan and Daniel Garde were busy throughout. Paddy Walsh now operating at full forward was having a great battle with Ballinora’s impressive full back. Ballinora launched another attack which resulted in a goal to leave us with a two point lead as the clock ticked down but our defence held out and the full time whistle sounded leaving us retaining the James O ‘Brien memorial cup for 2018.
Chairman Padraig O Brien addressed the crowd before handing over the presentation duties to James O’ Brien’s sons Mick, Jim and Ger who all wore the famous black and white in the past. The cup was presented to our captain Tomas Dunlea and the celebrations began in earnest.  After some words of wisdom from Tomas and photographs the teams adjourned to the pavilion for some much needed soup and refreshments.
We would like to thank the O Brien family, referee Mary Swayne Byrne and the committee for their help in organising and running of the tournament and attendance and help on the day. Thanks to Andrew Foley for adding his photography skills to his coaching duties, to the parents for providing much welcome refreshments and for their help on the day and Kiltha Óg and Ballinora for their contribution to an excellent days hurling.
This brings our playing season to an end for 2018, we would like to congratulate our players on their fine win and we thank them for their dedication, commitment and efforts throughout the year, it is great to see the continued improvement in skill level.  We now take a short break from training; we look forward to returning as Fe 13’s in the New Year.

Check out Andrew Foley's photos HERE

Fe 14
On Saturday afternoon we played the hurling league semi-final away against Bride Rovers. The playing conditions were excellent with only a Crossfield breeze that did not favour either team. We had a full panel to select from for this game, so picking the staring fifteen was a difficult job. Bride Rovers started the game brightly with a couple of early points, but we soon matched them on the score board with points from Mikey Finn (2) and Dave Cremin (3). But just as we were getting a foothold in the game our opponents caught us with two goals in a minute. This unsettled the lads, as well as an accidental injury to one of our players, Michael Rowe, who took had to leave the field following a heavy bang to the side of his head. He has made a full recovery since. Bride Rovers finished the half stronger scoring another goal. At halftime the lads regrouped, and we started the second half the stronger team winning individual battles throughout the field. We knew that we had to score goals to get back into the match, and we soon got them. Our first goal came following an excellent run from Tiernan Roche who blasted the ball into the back of the net. Our next goal came from Dave Green who stuck the back of the net following a goal mount scramble. This gave the lads great encouragement, but we had to keep pushing and working hard as our opponents were still scoring points. But we were also making our mark with points from Mikey Finn (3). Bride Rovers scored another goal as they caught us as we pushed forward looking for our next score. This didn’t stop our lads and we scored our third goal following an excellent finish to the back of the net from Mikey Finn. In the last few minutes of the game Bride Rovers were awarded two penalties, the first one was struck wide and the second penalty was brilliantly saved by Zach Smith. We pushed for another goal, but it never came despite the best efforts of all our players. In the end we lost out by four points. Our second half performance was one of our best displays of the season and every player gave their all and although the result didn’t go our way the players can be very proud of the commitment and performance that they put into this game. This was our last game of the season and we now move up to U15 next year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the players and parents for their commitment throughout the season making sure that they made it to training and matches all year. Hopefully we will see everyone again next season.
Panel: Mikey Finn, Tiernan Roche, Rian De Barra, Michael Roe, Odhran Prenter, Cathal Beausang, Dara Scanlon, Niall Lang, Tadgh O’Leary Hayes, Darragh Fitzgerald, Zach Smith, Tadgh Bohane, David Cremin, Fionn Dalton, William Kavanagh, Ben Kenneally, Brian O’Connell, David Green, Daniel Coffey, Rory Lister & Evan McGrath.

Fe 15
Our footballers travelled to Brinny (Innishannon) last Saturday to play the local Valley Rovers team in the first round of the Premier 2 Football Championship. These boys deserve a massive amount of credit for keeping their focus over a very long season as it should be remembered that they won the P1 County Hurling Title back on May 3rd in Togher.
Big numbers have again been turning up for football training over the last three weeks. We have played a couple of football league games in preparation for Saturday’s championship game. Valley Rovers are the standout team in the P2 league so this game was not expected to be easy one or us. Evan McCarthy our captain won the toss and so we played with the strong breeze in the first half. The young Magpies dominated possession for the first 15-minutes but unfortunately Valley Rovers struck, against the run of play, to score an early goal. Regardless of this our boys kept up the pressure and by half time the score line read Midleton 0-05 Valley Rovers 3-03. Our scores came from Evan Kelly three points from frees and Alex Quirke scored two points from play. But credit should also go to Niall Corcoran, Jordan Cahill, Darragh Codd, Daire Mooney and Ben O’Neill for their never say die attitude.
We benefited from the introduction of Rory Hartnett just after half time. Ciarmhac Smyth scored a cracking goal to keep our hopes alive. Brion Saunderson, Fintan Greenwood, Darragh McCarthy, Phelim Magann and James Condon kept the battle going to the final whistle. But alas we came up short on the day. Final score Midleton 1-07 Valley Rovers 5-09.  

Panel: Niall Corcoran, Jordan Cahill, Brion Saunderson, Fintan Greenwood, Darragh Codd, Darragh, McCarthy, Shay Bohan, Alex Quirke (0-02), Adam Fay, Evan McCarthy, Evan Kelly (0-05f), Daire Mooney, Liam Mc Grath, Ciarmhac Smyth (1-00), Ben O’Neill, Phelim Magann, James Condon, James O’Sullivan, Rory Hartnett Neil Fitzgerald & John Spellman.
We now qualify for one last competition which is the U15 football challenge cup, this is a knockout competition

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