*Colm Walsh O’Loghlen. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
COLM WALSH O’Loghlen watched on from the stands when Éire Óg won back to back senior football titles in 2021 and 2022, he’s now one of their leading lights in attack.
Indeed he is the club’s top scorer in the championship with a tally of 2-14 across their five championship outings. Not bad considering it’s an attack which also includes Mark McInerney and Gavin Cooney.
There’s plenty pedigree though as his great-grand uncle Michael from Ballyvaughan was part of the 1917 Clare team to reach the All-Ireland final.
It’s Colm’s second year on the senior panel having put away the football gloves following their 2017 Minor A championship win over Ennistymon and he’s very pleased to be back in red and white. “I’m local and a lot of the lads that I would have grown up with playing on that minor team with Ronan Lanigan, Ikem Ugwueru, Mark McInerney and Gavin Cooney, I saw the success they went on to have playing county and winning the two years in a row, Paul (Madden) was trying to get me to come back and see if I still had some football in me, I’m definitely glad I came back”.
Gaelic football has noticeably changed, the twenty five year old observed. “It was definitely a different game when I was playing underage, it was more go out and play, I knew when I was going back that it was going to be a completely different game fitness wise and obviously it is a jump from minor to senior, I had never played against adults let’s say in football, it was definitely an eye opener and it took me a while to get used to it on a fitness sense and the whole culture. The group that I’m with have been brilliant, they have really welcomed me back and I couldn’t ask for a better team to come into the frame with”.
For the county finals of 2021 and 2022, Colm watched from the stands. “A lot of my friends would have been playing in the finals, some that are still playing now and some that have moved away, even though I wasn’t playing for all them years I was still supporting them, I would have gone to pretty much all the games and finals so it wasn’t too hard a transition to go from fan to playing in the squad, coming back in and trying to get to the level they are at was probably the toughest part because they are at such a high level with so many guys involved in county panels so it is really the best of the best and that is the toughest thing, trying to meet the level they are at physically and ability wise”.
He told The Clare Echo, “I haven’t won as much as the guys in the dressing room but hopefully I can get a bit closer to them at the weekend, I’ve won a lot more in soccer but the football is where I want to be successful”.
How Colm can seamlessly move through the gears means keeping pace with the corner forward is no easy feat. “I think I was just fortunate enough that my best asset is probably my speed. My father played football for Clare in his twenties, that is where I got some of my ability from, he is pretty much the same height and build so I’d say that is where I got the speed from. I work on my speed, I do that outside of training to keep myself sharp, mainly in the off-season, I wouldn’t do too much in-season because we have such a heavy load with gym sessions and stuff like that so the risk of injury would be way too high but when we’re finished up and we’ve a few months off that is what I really focus on, staying sharp with a lot of mobility work and plyometrics to keep the burst that I have”.
Last year, Colm was handed a starting jersey once, when they defeated Doonbeg by five points in the third round. He featured off the bench in every other game except their quarter-final against St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield, in total he got 120 minutes on the pitch for the championship, whereas this year he has featured for all but three minutes making a grand total of 297 minutes.
Having decided to do a second year, Colm was determined he would be a starter in 2024. “Last year I really didn’t know where I would come into the team because obviously they were asking me to come back, I said ok and I’ll see where I’m at, I was talking to Paul as well as the junior manager at the time because I didn’t really know what my level was, I’d try get into the senior panel and if not play junior but thankfully I was at a good enough level that they felt happy to bring me in. The players ahead of me were starting for Clare and on the county panel like Gavin and Mark, Gavin Murray and Ikem were playing in the forwards last year so it was a very tough group to get in with so I kind of knew my role throughout the year would be coming off the bench and making an impact. Coming back this year I said I wanted to put the head down, work hard and then I thought I’d be good enough to start and hold down the spot so I’m pretty glad it has panned out that way”.
On what he brings to the table, Colm commented, “The people I’m playing alongside like Gavin and Mark are fantastic footballers who can kick off both feet, they are quick and can do everything I can do but maybe it is the fact that I’m not your orthodox footballer because I haven’t been playing for so many years so maybe there is a surprise element that I wouldn’t view things through the mind of a typical footballer in terms of things I can do with the ball, that is maybe one of the things that he sees but also I know myself I work just as hard as anyone out there, I feel like I deserve to be out there with the work I have put in last year and this year, I know my job is to keep the scoreboard ticking over, support people like Gavin, Mark and all the other forwards and play my role”.
Walsh O’Loghlen has certainly kept the scoreboard ticking, his two point tally in the semi-final was the equivalent of what Ennistymon mustered in the whole hour. He said Éire Óg are putting teams away this year, “We had a very good game the first day against Quilty on the Friday evening, both teams weren’t at our best, it was the perfect conditions for football but it was a game where we were both feeling each other out really, both teams were missing players, that was a tough game and thankfully we came out the right end of it. The Kilmihil and Lissycasey games were big wins, it was good to get the confidence going and then the Doora/Barefield game we were expecting a closer game, there was a lot of talk leading up to it because of the talk last year so Doora/Barefield thought they were ready to knock us off our perch and it didn’t work out like that. This year compared to last year I think we’re a different animal to be honest, I can’t speak for a lot of the lads because they have been there and done it but maybe last year there was a bit of fatigue mentally and physically, last year we weren’t putting teams away and the wins were by narrow margins, eventually we got by Cratloe but this year we’re beating teams and doing things we weren’t doing last year, our run this year is a lot better than last year and I feel we’re in a very good place heading into the final”.
Arguably a hamstring injury hindered him from getting more minutes last year. “I’ve had a lot hamstring injuries over the years. I was out for pretty much the entire run-in of the league, I came back and I was trying to get up to the pace of what they were all at because they were either involved with Clare or they had a whole league campaign under their belt and I was coming back from injury so maybe that is why it took a bit longer to get up to speed but once you get there and when you feel you’re on the same level as them it is very enjoyable. The hamstring injuries are something I need to take a serious look at, there must be some imbalance there because it is something that I seem to get at least once a year without fail, thankfully it has stayed away this year and I’ve been pretty much injury free”.
Self-described as unorthodox footballer, Colm may not carry the same hatred that is evident in some GAA rivalries. “I would have played against a lot of the players on the opposition teams when I was growing up, I know a lot of them like Doora/Barefield, Quilty and all that because I played with Clare in the underage set-up too so I played with a lot of them fellas, whether I have the same resentment that other people have for them I’m a bit new to it I suppose so I can’t say there’s anybody that I particularly don’t like but in the dressing room you know who are the teams you want to see come the end of the year, your teams like Doora/Barefield, Ennistymon and Quilty are the teams we want to see”.
An only child, Colm comes from an interesting house, his father Martin was parliamentary assistant to Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) during his thirteen years as a TD and remains his right-hand man and his mother Helen is the County Librarian. “I think my Dad always wanted me to dip my hand in with the politics, I went to many Ard Fheis’ over the years, a lot of conferences, a lot of Fianna Fáil get-togethers, I obviously pay attention to it and I would have an interest in it but it is never something I wanted to pursue career wise. On the library side of things, I think I’ll leave the books to my mother, that is her thing. It is a good mix to have for your upbringing them two different worlds. I’m the only one in the house, I was the only one they could sink their teeth into and try get me involved with Fianna Fáil, Ógra Fianna Fáil, book clubs and things like that but they didn’t manage to sway me in the end”.
Reading remains a great way for Colm to switch off. “It was something she wanted me to pursue a little bit more but I read in the evenings, I find it very good before you go to sleep because working in the Credit Union you are looking at a screen a lot of the time, we use our phones so much so I find that one of the best things to do before I go to sleep is read, that is usually what I do before I go to sleep and it works”.
Paul Madden’s tips for success would be a book he’d be more than happy to tuck into, “It would be a pretty good read I’d say, he has had a bit of success so if he put one out I’d probably buy Paul Madden’s tips for success, he is a leader of men, there’s so many leaders in the dressing room and a lot of the things they have picked up they have picked up from him, we’ve such a great backroom team too but Paul is the main man, when he speaks you listen and there isn’t one person that wouldn’t put their body on the line for him, he is the best man for the job”.
Madden has made an impression in terms of his ability as manager. “In terms of influence Paul is definitely the most influential manager that I’ve had, I’ve had a lot of success with soccer with people like Robbie Williams, Robbie is someone I played with when I was younger and he was the latter stages of the career, I view Robbie more as a friend and we would have a good friendship outside of soccer as well, I’m not saying we don’t get on with Paul because he is as sociable as he is a leader. Soccer is probably a bit more lax, the set-up we have here is pretty intense but that breeds successful teams and he is the main reason for that, I think the GAA would be a bit more serious but there is a reason for that because you don’t get to X amount of county finals and win county finals if you don’t have a set-up like that”.
Working as a clerical officer at the Credit Union in Ennis, his preparations have been aided by the return of his colleague, Avenue Utd stalwart Gary Roche to the office following a brief sojourn in the sunny climate of Dubai. On top of work and his sporting commtments, Colm is studying to become a qualified financial advisor, so he may yet be an advisor to a future Minister for Finance, “I don’t know about that but it’s a few letters after the name anyway and it will hopefully help me move up the ladder a bit”.
Also a very talented soccer player, Colm has lined out with Limerick FC, Mervue Utd and most recently Pike Rovers, he started his career at Avenue Utd before moving to Limerick FC aged fourteen. “I think I’m pretty content with the football, when I came back last year I said I was only going to do it for the one year but I felt like I couldn’t really leave it on the note we finished last year so I said I’d come back and I’ve enjoyed it even more this year, playing helps a lot with that. I’m pretty happy playing the football, I’ll see where things go after the county final and reassess for the New Year, I can’t see myself not coming back next year so if that is the case that I can’t go back playing soccer then that may be the case I’ll see and I’ll see if Pike want me to come back in and if the soccer comes along but I can’t see myself not playing football next year”.
At Pike, he won back to back league titles in 2022 and 2023, the Lawson Cup two years running while coming very close to winning the FAI Junior Cup in 2022 losing to Villa FC of Waterford, “we’ve won a lot but we’ve come up short a lot, I’ve won a lot of silverware in there and I don’t think my journey is done just yet with Pike”.
One central figure on his journey with Pike was Ennis’ Steven McGann who returned to Avenue Utd last August. McGann drove Colm in and out of Limerick for training and while he is still honing his skills in trying to dodge the traffic wardens of the county town, Steven’s driving could not be faulted by Colm, “I won’t knock his driving skills but there was a lot of car journeys, driving in and out to Limerick over the years, we had a lot of success so it was all worth it”.
He continued, “We had a very strong team for a good number of years and Steven was the focal point of that team, he is a quality soccer player, there’s been a lot of talk for years on whether he would come back to Avenue and eventually he did, last year we fell just short in the league and in the FAI, if we had Steven in them games it probably would have been a different outcome, we could have had a very different year but losing someone like him is always going to have an affect on the team. I know he is happy to be home but it would be good to see him in a Pike jersey again someday hopefully”.
Both Colm and Dean Ryan are chasing a first Clare SFC medal but there’s a huge appetite among the panel to prevail on Sunday, he said. “Coming in last year a lot of people probably said you’re coming into a team that has won two years in a row and you’ll probably get an easy medal, three in a row was the big talk of it but I didn’t view it like that, I wanted to get my name in the hat, be involved in the team and contribute, it didn’t pan out that way so I think us losing last year might have been the reason why we’re so hungry this year, I know I’m hungry for it but you can see everyone else in the team is playing right from one to thirty three, everyone that comes onto the field wants it just as bad as they wanted it the first year, that has shown in the way we play”.
