![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4809117_5_articleinlinemobile_dan_20blackrock_2016.jpg\" "\\"")
Michael O’Halloran, Blackrock is tackled by Midleton players Eoin Moloney and Tommy O’Connell. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\nIt came down to a free in the 82nd minute \u2013 and a limp.<\/p>\n
Conor Lehane, hobbling towards the ball, then hobbling away from the celebration, was the man who sent Midleton back to a county final.<\/p>\n
A game that could have gone either way for long spells, one that veered from brave to brutal, finished with the Magpies edging through by the minimum. But it came at a cost.<\/p>\n
Luke O\u2019Farrell limped off 17 minutes after coming on. Killian McDermott went down with cramp in extra time and hobbled off. And when Eoin Moloney was withdrawn three minutes from the end, it was with a limp too \u2013 before a suspected achilles injury in the celebrations that followed.<\/p>\n
Lehane felt the sting of that loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cEoin Moloney hurt his leg at the end, so it\u2019s a sad ending in a way,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll drive on and we\u2019ll do our best for him.\u201d For manager Miche\u00e1l Keohane, it was survival mode from the start of extra time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we could have used 10 subs in extra time, we\u2019d have had to use them,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were fellas cramping all over the place. The amount of effort that they put into the games. The intensity, the tackles, it\u2019s non-stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the level of fitness that they showed there is a huge credit to Frank Flannery, Steve Casey and the lads, that they were able to go that long.<\/p>\n
Michael O’Halloran, Blackrock is tackled by Midleton players Eoin Moloney and Tommy O’Connell. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n
\u201cGutted for Eoin. It looks like he\u2019s after damaging his achilles in some way shape or form. He was awesome today. He was good in the full-back line, half-back line, he was everywhere. Hopefully it\u2019s not too bad, but we\u2019ll see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moloney\u2019s return will be prayed for. Few players have been as influential for Midleton this season. His consistency in performance and leadership at full-back leave him an irreplaceable piece of the puzzle, and they\u2019ll need him again if they\u2019re to topple Sars in the final.<\/p>\n
To get there, though, it took a veteran\u2019s touch \u2013 and nerve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lads were saying, \u2018is he able to take the free?\u2019 If he wants to take it, we\u2019ll let him take it!\u201d Keohane smiled. \u201cThere\u2019s no one to stand up to the moment better. Just to make it as difficult as possible, we were right behind him and he curled it over the bar it was absolute heart in the mouth stuff. But it was a clutch moment, he\u2019s an incredible player.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lehane admitted he wasn\u2019t sure himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was probably going wide for, I\u2019d say 90% of it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the wind just took it, so I was just delighted when I saw the umpire going for the flag!<\/p>\n
\u201cEntertainment wise it was unbelievable, and the extra time, last minute stuff is great,\u201d Lehane explained. \u201cBut when you\u2019re on the pitch, you\u2019d much prefer not to be!\u201d he laughed. \u201cBut that kind of stuff stands to you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n When you come through the other end of that, it gives you great confidence, so delighted with the way it ended.\n <\/p>\n
It was another comeback victory, another test of nerve. But even those have their limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wants to start slow,\u201d said Lehane. \u201cAnd although it was great coming back against the Glen and great coming back today, you can\u2019t keep getting away with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s something to work on definitely, even though doing that is really good as well. It\u2019s kind of the balance there, but you don\u2019t want to be starting slow, especially going into a county final in a few weeks\u2019 time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And on the age-old debate \u2013 play the quarter-final or take the bye to the semis? Lehane shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know what, it\u2019s hard one to judge. You do have more time and you can rest up and get sorted, but it all just depends on how you perform in the semi-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you play well, people will be like \u2018aw they\u2019re great\u2019 and then if you don\u2019t they\u2019ll say \u2018they needed a game\u2019 so in a way it suited us this year, but the year we got to the final in 2023, we had that gap too! So it\u2019s just how you approach it for those few weeks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Midleton](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4809120_5_articleinlinemobile_dan_20blackrock_2020.jpg\" "\\"Midleton")
Midleton players Conor Lehane, Alex Quirke and Patrick White celebrate their win over Blackrock. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n
That\u2019s two finals in three years. The first with the bye, the second without it. But it was without the bye in 2021, when Midleton last won the county.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It came down to a free in the 82nd minute \u2013 and a limp. Conor Lehane, hobbling towards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[1263,24,18,129,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-105294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-sport","9":"tag-cork-gaa","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-hurling","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}