*Kilmurry Ibrickane captain, Dermot Coughlan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
FULLY FIT and raring to go, Dermot Coughlan leads the Kilmurry Ibrickane charge as they bid to lift the Jack Daly for the first time since 2020.
This will be his seventh senior final including the 2019 replay where they lost to neighbours St Joseph’s Miltown. He was corner forward in his debut season when they defeated Clondegad 1-17 0-17 in the final, lining out in the other corner was his first-cousin and other manager Enda.
Sunday sees them go in as underdogs versus Éire Óg having lost the 2021 and 2024 deciders to the Townies by five and seven points respectively, the focus is claiming the Jack Daly this weekend. “The last few haven’t gone our way, that is the first thing we’re looking to correct and we’re trying to get back on the winning side. In the first few years, I was lucky to get to one in my first year and win it, then you take it for granted and think that these come around every year, you realise as you get older that it is harder to get back to them and that is something we’re relishing at the moment, you’re trying to tell the younger boys that they don’t come around too often, enjoy the weeks leading up to it or the opportunity because you never know when it will come again,” Dermot explained.
Éire Óg have become the standard bearers in Clare, he acknowledged. “In fairness to Éire Óg they are a fantastic team, you could see over the last few years how they have raised the standards and it is up to the rest of us to chase that down, any day we go out you could be beaten on any given day, that is the way we take it, if you don’t bring your top performance and you’re not fully tuned in then you would be lucky to come out of any game with a win. Éire Óg had tough battles in the championship, there’s no doubt about it that they are the number one team, it is up to the rest of us to take them down, I still think the Clare championship is very competitive even though the scoreline may not reflect it in certain games, if you watch thirty or forty five minutes of games they are great battles, people are giving it everything and it means so much to people. It may not be reflected on the scoreboard but the competitiveness of games and how the standard has risen, I think it as high as it has ever been”.
Though only twenty six, he will turn twenty seven in December, Dermot is classing himself as one of the elder statesmen of the panel. “We were laughing during the week, in a matter of a few years we were considered an old team and then all of a sudden you look around and you have young lads coming from every direction, it is absolutely brilliant, we’re lucky as a club and a community that we seem to pull through a few young lads every year and it is keeping us going”.
With godfather Enda stepping up as manager this season, the dynamic between the two pals has not altered too much, according to Dermot. “We still get on fairly well, more than anyone he is not afraid to say it out straight out to, he has been brilliant, himself and Evan (Talty), anything we have asked for we have got it so everything is there for us, it is just on us to go out and play, we were more so delighted with the performance the last day that everything clicked for the boys, it showed with all the work they have been putting in”. Similarly Dermot is not afraid to air his views with the manager, “The way it falls if I think I’m in the right I will definitely say it, so far it has been smooth sailing so hopefully it sticks that way”.
A fractured foot hindered his involvement for their last county final appearance in 2024 but despite a potential knee scare following the quarter-final win over Doonbeg, Dermot is at full tilt for Sunday’s final. “I got a bit of a knock in the Doonbeg game the last day, it was a bit nervy the last while, the last few finals I haven’t the best of luck with injuries, Michael (Considine) got me in for a scan straight away, that man would do anything for the club, he bleeds green and red so once the news came back that it was a small bit of damage and something I could play through, to be honest it was as good as no injury”.
He told The Clare Echo, “I’m fully fit and raring to go, I’m relishing the opportunity. If you said to any player in the county they would get a shot at Éire Óg in a county final then they would bite your hand off for it, we’re no different, the last few finals haven’t gone our way so it is something we’re looking to rectify. It is nice to get to a county final but the Kildysart game and the semi-final is distant in the memory, we’re looking forward to the final and putting in a performance and see how far we can go”.
Recalling the build-up to the 2024 final when the foot injury clouded his preparations, Dermot stated, “The last final I kind of knew myself that I didn’t know how long it would last or how it would be, this time I’ve no worries about it, I’m looking forward to it completely because any day you get to a final you never know when it is going to be your last one, I’m just looking forward to leaving everything out there”.
Already in his career he has sustained two anterior cruciate ligament injuries, a broken ankle and a fractured foot and supporters, more than his fair share of blows which are all hopefully behind him. “We’ve good people around us on the physio side, when everything is going well I don’t really think about it, I got a small bit worried when I heard a crack but I’ve good people around me, I was down with the physio the following morning and she was hopeful enough so I was back watching training the next week, we’ve great lads around who would always be the first over, it is more so wishing them on and if it wasn’t meant to be then it wasn’t meant to be, I still have to be a voice around to drive the lads on as opposed to dragging them down, thankfully everything was okay”.
Along with Kilmurry Ibrickane prevailing in all five of their outings, Dermot has got the upperhand in he ‘Caimins derbies’ when getting the better of Emmet McMahon’s Kildysart and the Ger Keane coached Lissycasey along the way, both men are teaching colleagues of his at St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon. “We were doing some laughing at school about it, we haven’t played each other the last few years we were down there and then all of a sudden we were playing each other nearly every day this year, it is good to come out the right side for slagging rights in school but they are two top lads, we wished each other the best of luck and are still the best of friends after it. To be honest I wouldn’t be one to rub it in, they could have gone either way on any given day, we were lucky that everything seemed to click for us in those two games, we were in a good place and I’ll keep my mouth closed because in the next few years if it goes the opposite way I will hear it back”.
That twenty five point win over Kildsyart solidified the belief within the Bricks that once they clicked they would be difficult to stop. “We never doubted our ability, any day you win the first three or four games of the championship you will be happy but the boys were always telling us to keep doing what we’re doing, even the younger lads because we were trying to do the right thing, it was just the final pass or shot that we were rushing a small bit. Relief is the wrong word but it was a weight off the shoulders that for the team as a whole that everything clicked the last day and it gives us great belief going into a final”.
Captain for the past three seasons at senior level, he has also been named at centre back but that doesn’t ordinarily mean he is consigned to defence. “Ever since the new rules came in you have your back three and your front three, after that you could be playing absolutely anywhere, it is all about adapting, if you see some of the lads out there, you could be placed anywhere, within the new rules it is about hard work, anyone that gets out on the field is just delighted to put in maximum effort in that way. When I was playing there a few years ago, I was back there a bit more but you could be anywhere these days, once you are putting the head down and trying to do the right thing in the middle eight with the new rules you’ll get there eventually”.
His preference is to be out around the middle third. “Ideally I like being out around the middle, there was a few times the last day when I was coming back from injury that I was trying to roar across the boys to go back but they were turning a blind ear to me for a while, ideally I like being out around the middle eight but anywhere I get on the field I’m happy at that stage when I see a few young lads knocking around, anywhere at all”.
Six years have now passed since Kilmurry Ibrickane last lifted the Jack Daly, in an area where football leads the conversations that can create a sense of expectation. “The only pressure we put on is ourselves, in fairness we’re lucky to have a good community here, we’ve good lads over us and within the club volunteering, there is expectation but pressure is the wrong word to use. A few of the lads were saying the last day after the semi-final when you see the older lads within the parish or young kids running onto the field that is who you do it for, it is more so the faith they have shown and the trust, everything they do within the club, they are the ones keeping it going, the only pressure is what we put on ourselves”.
From Mullagh, Dermot acknowledged that the parish of Kilmurrt Ibrickane and its people are “absolutely obsessed” about football. “Even the buzz when we’re coming into knockout football, you can see it straight away, the hill does nearly be full watching training outside, at the start of the year there’s plenty of them up there but even the last few weeks it does nearly be full with lads looking to come in, get around and talk so it is brilliant because it shortens the winter for us because we’re into October now and we’d love to keep on going”.
Helping to take some attention off the footballers has been the club’s ladies footballers who claimed a second senior title in three years. “They have really set the standard for the last few years, this is their second final in three years, it takes the limelight for us, they are a fantastic team”.
Part of the Clare senior football squad since he was a teenager, Dermot has given his life to football at club and county. Outside of it though his closest friends are involved in football, it doesn’t feature as much as people might think when they meet up. “I’m lucky because we’ve a good friend group, when I started playing football it was here at the age of five or six, a lot of the lads I played with I came through with like Danny Walsh, Caoilfhionn O’Dea, Diarmuid King, David Sexton, when we don’t play football we’re always going off getting a coffee or messing around watching games, we’ll go to the ladies football and the hurling this weekend so it is nice to switch off too, you know when you’re going off with them lads the last thing you want to talk about is football really, it is good in a way that so many of my age group have come through”.
