Life first, hurling after.

Midleton lined out in an all-black strip for their county championship opener on Saturday evening. And once that opener had been successfully and somewhat comfortably taken care of, Midleton manager Micheál Keohane explained the reasoning to their changed championship strip.

Midleton wore the same all-black kit for last December’s Cork U21A final against St Finbarr’s. It was a game they won by five after extra-time. It was a game where Darragh McCarthy lined out at right half-forward.

That U21A decider was to prove Darragh’s last championship outing in Midleton colours, the 21-year-old student tragically losing his life in March. The black worn on Saturday and the black they will continue to wear for as long as their involvement in the 2025 championship runs is a nod to their not forgotten teammate.

“The lads had won the U21 last year with Darragh, wearing the black kit, so the younger guys said that they wanted to wear the black jerseys today as well, so we just said that was a nice gesture,” Keohane remarked.

Lining out at right half-forward on Saturday was David Cremin, the Cork underage panelist of recent years wearing the No.30 shirt. Retired for the rest of the year is the No.10 jersey Darragh donned at U21 and intermediate level in 2024. No.10 was also regularly seen on the back of the late Ger Fitzgerald, another Magpie taken before his time.

Such has been the club’s off-field hardship and suffering these past few months, the arrival of county championship fare on Saturday brought the slightest of distractions.

With Conor Lehane (0-3, 0-1 free), Killian McDermott, Mikey Finn, and Cormac Beausang (0-2) rushing Midleton into a 0-7 to 0-2 advantage after only nine minutes, their lead was never less than three thereafter. Their lead was never less than four beyond the first quarter.

“The first night is just about winning and doing anything at all that we can to just get over the line,” Keohane continued.

“We’re really happy with parts of it, and then we’ve probably got an awful lot to work on over the next couple of weeks for Newcestown.” Their performance was fragmented. Sporadic flow, bursts of brilliance, and long stretches of mundanity. This probably goes some way to explaining why they never looked in trouble but neither never pulled properly clear.

Ahead by 0-14 to 0-9 at the break, one compliment that must be paid to last year’s beaten county semi-finalists was that on the three second-half occasions Newtown closed to within four points, Midleton had an immediate answer.

On the last of those occasions entering the final quarter, Alex Quirke and Patrick White fired over in instant succession to shove the gap back out to six and remove the last bit of resistance from the North Cork challenge. A Lehane pair followed the aforementioned pair for a Midleton four-in-a-row approaching the hour and an eight-point lead.

“If you look at our inside forwards, in the first 15 minutes, every time the ball went into them, they won it, won it clean, and they look really sharp, really lively, but we just didn’t manage to get that much delivery into them.

“When we look at the video, I’d say the supply into them dried up in the second half. It’s something that we just need to work on, get further up the field before we’re delivering the ball.” 

For Newtown, the same as last year’s quarter-final, they remain a few paces off Midleton and that top bracket of clubs. Tim O’Mahony, from the placed ball, was responsible for 0-10 of their 0-19 total. Only centre-back Cormac O’Brien managed more than a solitary score from play. Much to work on ahead of their much-anticipated local clash with Charleville on Sunday, August 17.

Scorers for Midleton: C Lehane (0-9, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ‘65); D Cremin, C Beausang, A Quirke (0-3 each); P White (0-2); S O’Meara, T O’Connell, K McDermott, M Finn (0-1 each).

Scorers for Newtownshandrum: T O’Mahony (0-11, 0-10 frees); C O’Brien (0-2); Robert Troy, D O’Connor, E O’Mahony, R Geary, M Ryan, T O’Neill (0-1 each).

MIDLETON: B Saunderson; L Dineen, E Moloney, C Smyth; S O’Meara, T O’Connell, R O’Regan; A Quirke, M Finn; D Cremin, C Lehane, K McDermott; L O’Farrell, C Beausang, P White.

Subs: A Daly for Quirke (6-13 mins, temporary); T O’Leary Hayes for McDermott (7 mins, inj); A Daly for Quirke (54).

NEWTOWNSHANDRUM: J Bowles; Rory Troy, P O’Sullivan, T McCarthy; C Twomey, C O’Brien, K O’Sullivan; B Collins, J Geary; T O’Mahony, Robert Troy, D O’Connor; E O’Mahony, C Griffin, R Geary.

Subs: M Ryan for Geary (HT); T O’Neill for O’Connor (39); S Minhane for C Griffin (46); J Lane for Collins (54); D Ryan for O’Sullivan (61).

Referee: S Stokes.