'You always try and use hurt as motivation' - Midleton avenge last year's defeat with impressive Harty win
Selector James Mulcahy tells what it means to win the Dr Harty Cup. A tight battle ended in Midleton CBS favour, 2-12 to 0-14 – ending a 13-year wait for the title.
“It is an incredible win, so hard-fought, especially at the end. The lads showed great heart to get them over the line. I am so just delighted for them. It was a very tight finish. Goals were scarce, but we felt at half-time that another goal would win the game.”
It was all-square at the interval, 1-7 to 0-10. Jason Hankard getting the vital touch to Ryan McCarthy’s free from distance to register a Midleton CBS goal after just five minutes.
“CBC had a few goal chances too but our backs sniffed them out. The turning point probably came midway in the second-half. Jack McGann (goalkeeper) came out with a ball, he ran half of the field and earned himself a free which McCarthy converted. Then we got our second goal from Joe (Stack). He won every ball, he did a fair bit of damage, he stepped up when it mattered.
“Prior to that we had struck four or five wides, and we were disappointed with that, but when you are in a pressure situation, no shot is easy. You just have to forget about them and go again. Thankfully, it didn’t bother the lads too much.”
The victory also helped erase the memory of last year’s final defeat to Ardscoil Rís
“You always try and use a bit of hurt as motivation. But we really didn’t talk a lot about it. We talked bits and pieces.
We had a new team coming in this year, we had only five or six of last year’s team. We had our own goals set in our own heads from the start of the year. The lads themselves set their own targets.
