Tommy O'Connell aiming to brew Midleton success after swapping finance for flat whites

O'Connell's Midleton face Sarsfields in the Cork Premier SHC final on Sunday. "We believe if we're at 100% that we can beat anyone in Ireland," said the Cork hurler.

Sat, 18 Oct, 2025 - 06:15

Eoghan Cormican

Tommy O’Connell opted for a change of pace and scenery earlier this year.

From equity plan management with JP Morgan and the 9-5 office existence to cooking up flat whites and whatever other morning brew the Crush customer is after.

Crush Coffee, with bases in Little Island and the Marina Market, is the brainchild and business of three Cork natives, including Cork hurler Robbie O’Flynn.

So the new Midleton barista has a fellow Cork teammate for his boss?

“Robbie is my boss, yeah, it was all going great while we were winning throughout the year,” O’Connell quips.

As a Cork hurler, the one obvious advantage to the office existence is being largely removed and sheltered from the Monday-Friday public opinion on Leeside. A championship-time opinion that is never offered in tentative fashion.

But when you’re at a counter taking coffee orders, there’s little option but to also take the Cork hurling commentary coming in the door and through the hatch.

Tommy didn’t mind the conversations, enjoying the passion of those he was handing out full cups to.

“90% of the year was good because we were winning, so they were enjoyable conversations. After the All-Ireland, everyone has their own opinion, and they'd be voicing them. But everyone is eager and everyone is excited, so there is no badness in it.”

Injury earlier in the year meant his first League involvement wasn’t until Round 5 at home to Kilkenny. A championship starting spot continued to elude him across the ensuing summer. His roll call reads five appearances off the bench, including the nightmarish All-Ireland final.

“It was disappointing the way it ended. Just from the second half onwards, it was obviously not great. On a personal level I was injury-free coming back in with the club, which is the main thing.

“You just have to park it because I love the club so much that there was no time to be down about anything. You just want to make sure that you're putting the club and yourself in the best position going forward in the year. Once I was injury-free, I was able to drive on, and I didn't think too much about the All-Ireland final at all.”

We did ask the 25-year-old to look ahead, mind, to life under the new man in the Cork hotseat. They are already well familiar, Tommy the centre-back in the Ben O’Connor-coached Midleton county winning team of four years ago.

“Ben is one of the best managers I have ever had. He is an incredible person. When Pat stepped away, everyone was delighted to hear that Ben was getting involved.

“He'll try and put his own spin [on it], as well as bring in some of the good stuff because we haven't been too far away.”

That’s enough coffee and enough Cork. Onto matters Midleton.

Since the aforementioned ‘21 success, they’ve never exited the local championship earlier than the semi-final juncture. It is a level of consistency second only to Sars. It is a level of consistency, though, that has yet to translate to a second county medal for the majority of this group.

“When you're playing in a county final, it doesn't matter who you play,” the centre-back says of reacquainting with the team that bettered them in the 2023 final and ‘24 semi-final by margins of two and one point.

“You just want to get that medal at the end of the day and get that cup home with you. We're under no illusions because Sars are one of the best teams, if not the best, in Ireland so it's going to be a very tough task to try to take them down. Every team in the county is looking at them as being the kingpins, so they'll be very tough opposition to play against.”

He views the 0-22 to 0-21 semi-final defeat of 12 months ago as the more disappointing of the pair purely because it played out along similar lines to the previous year’s defeat and Midleton still unable to write a new ending.

“It was brilliant to come out on the right side of tight games in the quarter and semi-final this year. We believe if we're at 100% that we can beat anyone in Ireland.”

Third time different so?