*Kilmurry Ibrickane captain, Dermot Coughlan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
IT’S a race against time for Kilmurry Ibrickane captain Dermot Coughlan who is doing all he can to line out in Sunday’s Clare SFC final.
Coughlan sustained a fractured foot in Kilmurry Ibrickane’s eleven point quarter-final win over St Joseph’s Miltown on September 28th which ruled him out of their three point semi-final victory against Cratloe and has him as a major doubt for Sunday’s final with Éire Óg.
Storm Ashley has come and gone in West Clare but within the parish of Kilmurry Ibrickane, it is believed that the most common prayer this week has been for Dermot’s foot, a notion he laughs at. “I could do with them, I’ve been unlucky enough and I picked up an injury against Miltown, I fractured my foot and it was bad timing again but that is what squads are there for, you can see it with Éire Óg they have five or six quality players on the bench, that is something we have looked into this year and have really developed, I’ve full faith in everyone that is togged for us the next day”.
He still has a determination to try play some part on Sunday. “At the moment it is not looking lightly but I will do everything I can to get back for that day, nobody wants to be missing out but it is important to be right too and you need fifteen players that are fit on the day and five or six more to come on to win a county final, I’m looking forward to it and seeing what we can do on the day”.
It was a “particularly sore” first two weeks following the injury which saw Dermot forced to take him off work, he is based at St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon as an English and history teacher. “The last week I’ve seen the first signs of improvement, I can get around in the boot some bit but it is a different kind of boot that I’m wearing at the moment and I’d rather be running out with the lads with the football boots on but look I’m here to help in any way I can, we’ve a great community, a great parish here and everyone is looking forward to it, there’s a great buzz around the place, anything I can do for anybody I’ll be there”.
Back in Shanahan McNamara Memorial Park, Doonbeg on September 28th, he hobbled from the Kilmurry Ibrickane dugout all the way to the dressing room, it’s a journey that would normally take two to three minutes but it took him twelve to thirteen. “I told the boys in the dressing room that there was more important things to me, I wasn’t going to be help them on that day but thankfully it didn’t affect them too much and they turned in a top quality performance and they backed that up the last day even though we might have been clinging on for a finish but we got over the line, semi-finals are for winning, all you want to do is to get back to a county final”.
Dermot who turns twenty five in December has been incredibly unlucky with injuries, particularly the more serious ones. “My first very injury was above in Newry, we played Armagh and the pitch was half frozen that day, after about ten seconds I went down and I dislocated and broke my ankle, that was the first major one. After I won my second championship in 2020, I remember with Clare we went and played a challenge game, I remember in the warm-up, it was just coming into the October and November months, I went to turn and I did my cruciate that day, I was eager to get back and I made it back, Ray Moran in Santry has been top class and a great help to me, he thought I was flying and I came back I went training with Clare and I was unlucky enough for it to go again but ever since then I’ve had no real long-term injuries until the Miltown game the last day where I just fractured my foot going up for a ball, I knew straight away, there is setbacks and they are all part and parcel of it, some more than others unfortunately but I will do everything I can to try get back as fast as possible to get back on the field,” he recalled.
To keep bouncing back from such blows requires a strong mental resilience. “It is frustrating and it is very disappointing, you want to be out there especially with the people you grew up with, to be playing with your parish in county semi-finals and finals is what every young player starts off doing, you look up to them boys and you want to be playing with them, you live for them moments, I’m no different but I’m lucky enough in that we come from a great footballing parish, I’ve great people around me and we’ve a superb squad, after the Miltown game I was disappointed but the boys really gathered around me and they made me a promise that they would do everything they could to get back to the county final and they came through to their word, all I can do is help them in anyway I can this week and see where we can improve and what we can do to try regain Jack Daly”.
Adjusting to the role of the spectator is one he does not want to get used to. “I’ve great respect for every Kilmurry Ibrickane fan after the last day, it is nearly easier play them games than watch them, you’re trying to kick every ball with the lads but everyone is the same when you’re injured, you want to be out there and you want to be playing, the boys turned in a top performance, they had a great first half and died away a small bit in the second half but that is ton be expected, every team you are going to play in the latter stages of the championship you are not going to have it all your own way, you will suffer setbacks and be under the kosh for a sustained period of time, they battled and dug in to get over the line, the next day will be no different because Éire Óg are a top quality side but we will look forward to the battle, we will look to back ourselves and see if we can get over the line”.
With his temporary vantage point on the sideline alongside the management, Dermot admitted he was impressed with the decision making of his teammates in possession. “You’ve to admire the composure of our older fellas, in the second half they knew how to hold the ball when it came down to it, it took the sting out of the Cratloe attack even though it never seemed like ending in the second half for a while, I remember looking up at the clock at one stage in the second half and there was only six minutes gone in the second half, I was thinking we would never get out of here but we did. It is different, when you are playing them games you don’t feel that pressure because you’re just trying to get on the ball, make space for someone else but when you’re watching from the sideline you are nearly trying to kick the ball with the boys and it is very different, all you can do is back them up and offer any bit of advice you can to see how you can improve the next day”.
Management and coaching is nothing new to the Coughlan clan, his father Dermot stepped down as Clare minor manager following a six year stint while his uncle Enda who is part of the Kilmurry Ibrickane panel served as a selector for five years with Colm Collins and the Clare seniors.
On the prospect of heading into coaching or management, Dermot remarked, “I’ll leave it off for a few more years, I’ll see how the injuries clean up and look to get back playing at some stage. I prefer playing myself, I’ve great respect for anyone that takes up the coaching and managing roles because it is tough and we see that here with the amount of preparation that goes into it, David Egan and Evan Talty who have been involved with us this year along with Kevin Sexton and Vinnie Talty have put in great work, most people think you turn up and it’s an hour and a half training but it is preparation that goes in behind the scenes is through the roof and we’re forever grateful to them boys this year who have put in a big effort with us and it has shown since the first day below in Cooraclare to last Saturday in Cusack Park, we’ve really improved day in day out, we know we that performance won’t win us a Jack Daly but if we can raise our performance levels fifteen to twenty percent then hopefully we can get over the line”.
There’s plenty of footballs kicked and sliotars pucked in the staff room of St Caimin’s this weather with Aaron Cunningham winning a second Clare IHC medal with Wolfe Tones as Brian Corry chases a sixth Clare SHC medal with Sixmilebridge while the football conversation is steered by Dermot, Emmet McMahon, Ger Keane and Páraic Aherne, “I’m grateful to the teachers down there for the two weeks after the Miltown game when I was in a cast, I was unable to make it into work and there’s a great footballing background down there and a great hurling background too actually, they were a great help to me and provided great support”.
Given that he is teaching English and history, the same subjects as Keane, he gets a great kick at being labelled “Ger Keane the second”. Coughlan said, “In fairness to Ger he has been a great help to me below there, he has taken me under his wing and shown me the ins and outs of it all, I’m delighted to get into such a fantastic school and the sporting background makes it easier for the break-time conversations”.
Coughlan confirmed that the Kilkee native has yet to teach him the ropes on post-goal celebrations as he famously delivered after teeing Martin Daly’s match winning goal in the 1997 Munster semi-final. “We all know about Ger, he was a fantastic player so I’m delighted to see him going in with the minors with Joe Hayes, he can offer a wealth of knowledge, it is great to see former players like that going into a minor set-up and seeing if they can bring through the next generation”.
With the exit of thirteen members of the 2023 Clare squad, Dermot was one of the players to assume a leadership role with the county this season and he duly delivered. “We were written off before the year started with Clare, we’re lucky enough that we had a great man over us, Mark Fitzgerald, he was backboned by a strong team of Seanie Buckley, James Costello and Declan Downes, he built a real team spirit, it was game on game and we really bought into what he was trying to do with us, we got better as the year went on, I know in the All-Ireland series we didn’t do ourselves justice but if you told us at the start of the year with such a turnover that we’d get to a Munster final, perform and be in the All-Ireland series we would have taken it. Unfortunately Mark has decided to step down after a year in charge but we are forever grateful, these things happen and it is up to the players and the new man in charge to step up again, as for Clare football it will always be there and it will always battle on”.
With his father acting as one of four members of the interview panel to appoint Fitzgerald’s successor, he confirmed there is no interrogation going on at the kitchen table in Mullagh to get an inside track. “He wouldn’t tell me much there, everything that goes on there is for the greater good of Clare football, from a personal point of view I am just concentrating on the club at the moment and seeing how far we can get and can we get over the line the next day and put in a big effort in two weeks time”.
Off the back of leading the way with Clare, he was very proud to get the call to captain his club. “From a personal point of view it is a great honour but if you ask anyone of them fifteen or twenty lads inside in the dressing room to be captain they would do just as good at the role as I would be able to be, at the start of the year we set out to get to a county final and hopefully get over the line, that is our main aim, being captain is nice but at the end of the day it is just another title on a piece of paper, there have been lads that are around a lot longer than I was and lads that come a lot longer after me, we’re all trying to row in the same direction, work for each other on the field and see how far we can get together”.
How far Coughlan can go and the input he will have for Sunday’s final, his fifth including replays and injuries, will be determined at training on Thursday when management finalise their starting fifteen.
