Midleton Rugby Football Club was initially founded in the 1927/28 season. The first match played by the Club, Captained by Jerry Coffey, was against neighbours and rivals Youghal. Although the Club was disbanded in 1934, a separate team called the Midletonettes was founded that same year. It was that Club team that was the direct predecessor of the current Club. The team was coached, for a time, by the late Tim West, Head Master of Midleton College and President of the Munster Branch, I.R.F.U. (Season 1962/63). Mr. West was the father of ex-international Referee John and Senator Trevor.
Other 'greats' from that time included the late Willie McCarthy who was the Honorary Secretary of the Midletonettes; his brother Ray, father of current Committee member Noel; John Williams (Dolphin, Muster and Irish Panelist); and Dais Moore of Sundays Well, father of current team Secretary Charlie. Councilor Con Carey is probably the last surviving member of this team.
The Midletonettes began the Club's long history of County Cup wins claiming it for the first time in the 1930's.
On 4th March 1967, Midleton RFC was reformed following a discussion on an 'All-in' train en route to an International match in Dublin. The four founding members on that train were Bill Hume (1st Hon. Sec.), Mr. Dais Moore (1st Chairman), Dr. Con Cunneen (1st President), and Jimmy McCarthy (1st Captain). The Club Sponsors were Sundays Well and Cork Constitution. For the rest of that season Midleton had to prove itself before being allowed into any competitions for the 1967/68 season. Our first league match (J3) was played against Bandon on 1st October 1967 and we won 12-5.
During the 1968/69 season the Club won the O'Neill Cup, the inaugural McCarthy Cup and a Tug-of-war trophy. The following season the Muster Branch deemed Midleton too strong for Minor rugby and forcibly upgraded the Club to Junior Status.
1970 saw the Club travel on the first of it's many Tours, that year to Aberyswyth, Wales. Subsequent trips have sent the Club to Jersey, Brixham, High Wycombe, Penarth and Edinburgh.
Midleton's finest year of that decade was undoubtedly 1977/78 when we were defeated in the final of the Munster Junior Cup by Garryowen (17-15). The fixtures were so backed up by the end of the season that the Junior team had to play five matches in seven days. On the last day of the season Midleton defeated Old Christians in the final of the County Cup by 7-0. This was a superb victory considering the two teams had met the previous evening in the final of the O'Neill Cup, with Old Christians claiming the spoils.
1988 saw Midleton capture the County Cup for the first of three consecutive years. Other highlights in the 1980's saw the team reach the final of the Munster Junior Plate.
The 1990s have been years of tremendous success for the Club. With the only blip coming in 1993 when the team was relegated to Division 2 of the Junior League. Stung by this indignity the Club won every league match in that division and went straight back up to Division 1 the following year. Since that year the Club has never looked back, finishing in the top three every year. Great success came in 1996/97 when coached by Denis Kelliher and captained by Graham Eady, the team won the Junior League, the Junior Cup, the Junior Challenge Cup and the O'Neill Cup. This achievement had never previously been enjoyed by any Junior Club.
That success was built on in 1997/98 with a great belief throughout the Club that the team could achieve promotion to the Senior ranks. Mr. Damon Urlich was appointed Head Coach for the season and with Mr. Tom Mulcahy assisting him they set about developing a strategy to fulfil the goals established by the Committee: to defend the Munster Junior Division 1 title and to gain promotion to Division 4 of the All Ireland League. Achieving these goals would mean playing over 30 games throughout the season. The first objective then based on lessons learned from the previous year was to strengthen the squad to ensure bodies were kept healthy and available. The second objective was to improve the individual skills of players, necessary for the positions they played, while increasing their awareness of the overall game. The third objective was to improve fitness to a Senior level. And finally, the fourth objective was to change the attitudes of players to a more Senior outlook - improving confidence and belief.
Bringing the squad together in mid-July, the Coaches went about setting standards for fitness, ball handling skills, game strategy and attitude. This was translated into impressive performances on the field throughout the season.
In capturing four major trophies in the 1997/98 season, including the League title and the Junior Cup for a second successive season, along with achieving promotion, the team amassed a total of 997 points in 32 matches from 145 tries. Forty players participated in winning the O'Neill Cup, the Munster Junior Division 1 League title, the Cork County Cup, and the Munster Junior Cup.
1997/98 highlighted a new chapter in the history of the Club - becoming a Senior team.
In this past season, Midleton RFC has once again rewritten the history books and attained promotion from Division 3 to Division 3 on the very first attempt.
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TAIT FITS THE BILL
by Robert O'Shea (Evening Echo Sat Oct 25th,2003)
One day eight years ago, Mary Tait told her husband she had received a phone call from Midleton RFC. The Club wanted him to become its president, she said. He was reluctant, but as the day went on Mary proved persuasive. Later that night, five members of the Club came knocking on the door of the couple's house in Aghada.
Before you meet the oldest rugby club president in the world, anyone you care to ask will tell you that he is a gentleman. That is a word you will hear again and again. It is a word not used often enough these days, and is now mostly found in speeches or nailed on a lavatory door. Bill Tait is in the Mill Wheel Pub, a place that is steeped in the history of Midleton rugby, and where he can sometimes be seen drinking a glass of scotch with ginger. He is sprightly for his age and he has a cheerful demeanour.
A few years after Bill was elected as president of the club, Mary died. It was tough after that, but he says he found an outlet in the club. "It became a bit like an extended family," he says. And in a way it was, because Bill had been one of its founding fathers. Bill tells the story, "The original club broke up in 1938. Then in 1967 a few of us were going up on the train to Dublin for an international match and we were talking rugby and about how it was a shame that there wasn't a club in Midleton. Well, we decided there and then to re-form the club." "We held our first meeting in Cuddy's out near Ahanesk just outside Midleton. Dr. Con Cunneen was elected president and I was the Chairman.
We were a minor club without any grounds, so I approached Jim Smith, the headmaster of Midleton College and he gave us permission to use the college grounds for training and our home matches." Midleton College have always been a great help to the club. It is Bill's old school and also the place where he grew to love rugby. "I never played past school's rugby. Every year though, the College used to play against the town of Midleton and we'd always have a tough game. I was hooker. My son actually went to a GAA school and never played until he left. But then he joined Midleton and went on to play for Munster Counties, hooking. And then his son, when he was in Midleton College got picked for Munster B, also hooking. So we're three hookers in the family."
"John Williams, who was the same age me, was a great player here in the town who went on to play for Dolphin. We were always feeding Cork city clubs with our players then. But I guess that we have benefited from movement in the other direction more recently. Before our games against Midleton, our headmaster when I was in the College, Tim West, would simply say, "Watch John Williams." John would have made the Irish team but the war years happened just when he was prospering." Thirty years later the Club was setting off on a long road.
"We were lucky when Larry McGovern and Dan Lynch, who owned the Mill Wheel here, joined us. They were senior players with Cork Con and the helped us on our feet. We had a lot of local lads who didn't know one end of the ball from the other and Dan and Larry were great for coaching them the skills of the game. We were minor then for a few years before we got up to Junior. We were lucky too because John and Des Hurley came down from Rockwell College and they were two fine players." John who owns SuperValu in the town, is now the main sponsor of the Club. He is also the most exciting player Bill says he saw play in a Midleton jersey. "He was a full-back and he was worth 12 points before any game because he was a great place kicker and a great punt of a ball and always had the opposition under pressure with it.
" Youghal, Cobh, Bandon, Clonakilty, Skibbereen and Fermoy were regular opponents in those days. "Bandon were really the team to beat at the time. There was also great rivalry between us and Youghal, but we always seemed to be able to hold them off by a point or two." Midleton were the first of the above teams to make the breakthrough to senior. But it didn't come easy. "Cork Con were Midleton's bogey team, always winning by a few points, like we did against Youghal. We always maintained that the day we could beat Cork Con at junior level, we were entitled to go senior." In the mid-90's they were to beat Con in the Junior Cup final in two successive years. "I have a lot of proud moments with the Club," says Bill, "but that first win against Con is probably the proudest." In 1998 after beating Con a second time in the cup, the Club was promoted to senior rugby.
When Midleton triumphed over Sligo in a play-off on a wintery Easter day in Portlaoise, it was the end of a long journey and a beginning of a new one: one that would see them promoted two years running at senior level. They now play in division two of the All Ireland League. Outside of the team the Club was moving forward too.
"There was the building of our Clubhouse in 1998. There was a lot of hard work put into the club through the committee when Brendan McCarthy was the Chairman of the club and I served six years with Brendan. We have a good committee now too and they all work well together. It's hard though. Professionalism is a good thing for the players, but it costs a lot of money to run clubs these days.
" The future of rugby, of course is the thing that concerns him most. He has special praise for Noel Murphy, the former president of the IRFU. "Noel was a help to rural clubs and was a man who you could pick up the phone and talk to if you ever had a problem to do with rugby." As the tape clicks off, Bill actually feels the need to apologise for not being able to give a good interview, for not being able to remember things. He protests that he is old and smiles and says that he will not be around much longer anyway. Gentleman? It's a word that fits like a coat.
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Club Honours
Honours Munster Junior Cup (2) 1997-98
Munster Junior Clubs' Challenge Cup (1) 1997
Munster Junior League Division 1 (2) 1997-98
Munster Junior League Division 2 (1) 1994
