*Coole FC in Clare Cup action against Fair Green Celtic. Photograph: Natasha Barton
COOLE FC are hopeful their first team will give their younger players something to look up to as they begin their second season in the top flight.
Gort based Coole FC prevailed in a relegation battle last season to ensure they would not drop down to the First Division and bid to show improvements as they keep their place in the Maloney Garden Machinery Premier Division.
Christopher Harrington has assumed the role of manager of the A team, having been in charge of the B team last season. The Dublin native has been living in Gort for the last eighteen years. Of the step up, he commented, “It has been a challenge but I’ve enjoyed it, the club are great and are backing everything we need, there’s a great mix, we have the support from the committee all the way down, once you have the backing of the club everything falls in the place”.
On the management he is joined by club secretary Emily Bradbury and his wife Lorraine Harrington with the club on the lookout for a coach to join their setup.
Experienced heads like Jimmy McDonald, Cian O’Neill, Jacob Lamala and Tom O’Neill will be called upon to show the leadership for Coole FC as they add a nice chunk of youths players to their squad. “Last year was a big eye opener for them, this year’s we’ve a lot of players with experience, it’s not just the U18s of last year, we have a lot of older players and we can build on that experience. Even in training you can the more experienced lads are the guys pushing it on,” Harrington observed.
Harrington is optimistic on the season ahead. “We just want to improve on last year and to climb the table as much as we can which I think we can do with the squad of players we have, I’m very optimistic. For us, it’s about staying in the Premier Division. We want to move forward and give younger teams in the club something to aspire, we’ve 400 members in the club at the moment so it’s quite a busy club and we want to show the younger players there is a platform to develop”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Christopher was under no illusions as to the scale of the challenge in front of them going from the bottom of the table to the top. “We all know Newmarket and Avenue are the teams and the level we want to reach but it takes years to get there. We’ve played a couple of teams in the Cup, the more we play together the better we will get, it is looking promising for the season”.
Coole FC:
Management: Christopher Harrington (manager), Emily Bradbury, Lorraine Harrington
Captain: Jimmy McDonald
Key Player: Cian O’Neill
One to Watch: Adam McMahon
Fresh Blood: Thomas Murphy, Kieran Doyle, Adam McMahon, Joe O’Smith, Carlos Neto, Jack Granaghan, Sean Cunningham.
Departures Gate: Darren Grealish (moved to Galway League), Fergus Tuohy (emigrated), Gary Corless (emigrated), Airton Quinn (emigrated).
Last season’s run: Survived relegation play-off to keep Premier Division status. Knocked out in the third round of the Clare Cup by Fair Green Celtic.
