Midleton’s well of history runs deep and Fitzgerald is hoping his club can draw from it
GER FITZGERALD does not have to go blowing dust off the family tree to illustrate how thickly his clan’s blood flows through Midelton’s history. All he needs do is point you in the direction of his father. Tomorrow, 52 years after keeping Eddie Keher to a single point from open play in the 1966 All-Ireland final, Paddy Fitzgerald will manage Midleton as they take on defending champions Imokilly. A game in his playing day that was referred to as the ‘mini All-Ireland final.’ In an era where the age profile has made team management a fertile pursuit for 30 somethings, Paddy Fitzgerald is 80 this year. ‘He is very fit and in great shape and he is still loving it,’ insists his 54-year-old son Ger (right), who is also part of the management team. Hurling runs deep here and so too will passions tomorrow. For all their history — Midleton won the first of their seven county titles over a hundred years ago — 1914 to be precise — this is the first time they will go into combat with their own division, Imokilly. It will add a little spice to an occasion never lacking in flavour. It makes this a local derby, pitting Midleton against the best of their surrounding parishes. ‘It could be a peculiar final if you made it that way but the big thing for us is that we are playing the champions and we will have to play very well to overturn them. ‘We feel that if we can reach the levels we already have this year we have a very good chance,’ insists Fitzgerald, who is one of the most decorated players from the club’s golden era of the 1980s and ’90s. He won four county medals in that time — he captained them to the 1991 title — and an AllIreland club medal in 1988 to go with the two intercounty All-Irelands he won with Cork. But then Midleton’s history is a tale of feasts and famines. When Fitzgerald won his first county in 1983, it was the club’s first in 67 years, and when the modern crop of stars, led by the prolific Conor Lehane, lifted the cup in 2013, it was their first in 22 years. Fitzgerald wasn’t involved directly in 2013, but he was in charge of the club’s Under 21s who won the county that year, which allied to another success in that grade two years previously and a county minor win in 2010 provided the spine for this current team. Lehane, Luke O’Farrell, James Nagle, Seamus O’Farrell, Vinny O’Mahony and Tommy Wallace were all graduates of those teams and the sense that the club is on the brink of a new era plays for real, after the minors clinched the county crown last weekend. But they come into this as underdogs. While they have lost a number of key players — 2013 captain Patrick O’Mahony, Kilian Burke (who had a stint at full-back for Cork) — Alan Carney and Declan Ryan, are all out of the country for various reasons. In contrast, Imokilly look stronger than they did in winning their first title since 1998 last year — Youghal’s relegation from the senior ranks means that they can call on Bill Cooper, while Colm Spillane, who togged for UCC last year, is back playing with the division. If you flick through through the Imokilly team, you will find that nearly all have played at some level for the county, while Seamus Harnedy hardly needs an introduction as their captain. Outside of Kerry and Cork, divisional teams — made up of players from intermediate and junior clubs from a particular area — are a curiosity, and when you look at the depth of talent at Imokilly’s disposal, Midelton might have reason to feel sore. But Fitzgerald believes that it is a system which has served Cork well down through the years. ‘It gives lads who are not belonging to senior clubs a chance to play senior hurling, so I think it has served Cork well. ‘Some divisions embrace that opportunity and others don’t. That is just the nature of it. ‘Imokilly are one division who have really embraced it and they have won a couple of football titles as well. You have to admire them for that. ‘In the meantime, we lost a couple of lads but that is just the natural ebb and flow of club life. For the Fitzgeralds, it has been one well lived.