*Father and son, Dermot Coughlan.
CLARE’s football cause has been well served by the Coughlan family who will once more play a central role on and off the field for Sunday’s Munster senior football final.
Dermot Coughlan will line out at wing forward for Clare as they carry the underdogs tag against a Kerry side looking to win their eighty sixth title, he has been part of the senior football panel since he was a teenager.
His father Dermot will be among the vocal and passionate Banner supporters in Fitzgerald Stadium, rest assured he’ll be one of the first to greet the players win, lose or draw after the final whistle.
Taking pride of the place in the family sitting room in Ballymackea, Mullagh is a picture of the victorious 1992 Munster senior football panel of which Dermot was a vital cog, the chance for his son and namesake to replicate what was achieved by John Maughan’s charges is the aim this weekend.
Neither Dermot is titled senior or junior, if there is a shout at home for Dermot, it’ll nearly depend on the task or the tone to determine who answers the call, for this article the Snr and Jnr is merely inserted for ease of reading.
Reaching a third Munster final on the bounce is testament to the work ongoing at underage in the county according to Dermot who would know better than most considering he spent six years as Clare minor football manager, a term which concluded last year and included reaching the 2020 Munster final. “The quality of player coming through now is geared towards playing at this level, preparation down through the years the intensity and the structure wasn’t as good, maybe the draw suited you where you avoided a Cork or a Kerry giving you the chance to compete against the other counties to get to a Munster final, it’s the combination of both the a good quality of player coming through and the draw being kind to you. Three Munster finals in a row is a fair achievement for any team”.
His son is among the most talented forwards to have come through the county ranks in recent years. Lessons from their final losses to Kerry in 2023 and 2024 have to be applied this weekend, young Dermot maintained. “We were watching back a few of the clips from the Munster final last year, getting the small things right and taking our chances, there was a few times we went through and we tried to play that extra pass or the pass too many. Peter (Keane) has been all positive this week, he is telling us to be brave but to take the right decision and keep tipping over the points, the chances will come and as long as you take the right decision you will be in the mix come the final fifteen or twenty minutes”.
Meath upsetting the odds to defeat Dublin in Sunday’s Leinster semi-final has provided admiration for Clare, he said. “You can only look on and admire them and see what you can take from the game and try implement on Sunday. Meath had no fear, they were brave, they ran at Dublin every chance they got, it is important in Killarney that we treat it as any other game, it is a third Munster final but as Peter said to us during the week ‘nobody remembers getting to a Munster final if you don’t win them it is just another game’”.
On top of their learnings from the seven point provincial final loss to Kerry, the wing forward is keen for Clare to give a better account of themselves in the All-Ireland series when attention turns to that next week. “We played great stuff for forty or forty five minutes against Kerry, then we were unlucky against Cork, we didn’t click as much as we did two weeks previous, it never fell into place after that. Mark and the boys did great work with us last year, we were exposed to a high calibre of player with Tyrone and Donegal, that is the level we strive to get to, at the time it wasn’t great but we’re all the wiser from the experience of it. We’ve introduced nine new lads to the panel this year, the lads that experienced it last year will take our learnings from it and see what way we can improve as players to reach that level”.
Worth about three to four points in last year’s final he calculated was the strength of the Clare support among the crowd of 12,059. “It was unbelievable, even walking behind the parade that day, every score we got was nearly cheered on, you could feel it and there was a bounce off the team. We encouraged everyone to come out last year and cheer us on, it was definitely worth three or four points to us, with the long weekend if we could get as many Clare supporters down there as possible it would really drive us on and hopefully reflect it on the scoreboard”.
Among Dermot Snr’s first jobs after stepping down as minor manager was to get involved in the selection committee which recommended the appointment of Peter Keane as Clare manager. Reflecting on what impressed him about the Kerry native, he recalled, “The calibre of guys in for interview, we interviewed eight or nine people for the role, the quality within the county and outside was unbelievable compared to the year before. What swung it was he had been there at the highest level, he had been there on the biggest day, an All-Ireland final twice, he had three Munster championships won, he won three All-Irelands with Kerry, he wasn’t going to be fazed by dropping down the divisions and playing other teams, he had been at the highest level and he was able to cope with that pressure, I think he was going to be a good fit for Clare because the players would see he has operated at the highest level, the respect would be there straight away and that was the turning point”.
So far, he has been pleased with the amount of players used by Keane in competitive games. “He was willing to build, he tried to throw lads in, see what they could do because it is very easy to go with the same players, it is a sink or swim job, when it comes to championship he knows his panel and the four or five he will use, whether they need more game time or another year, he wasn’t afraid to take a chance on the six or seven players he introduced this year and you’d be hoping that will pay off coming into the qualifiers because I felt with all the injuries last year after the Munster final it was like going into the Ulster championship, we just didn’t have the back-up and the results proved it, I think he had one eye on that, he said we could get to a Munster final and build a panel because you need it in the All-Ireland series”.
While he has been on Clare panels which reached All-Ireland quarter-finals and narrowly missed out on promotion to the top tier of the Allianz National Football League, Dermot Jnr pointed out that the strength of this year’s squad is visible to see. “This year we lost two games and didn’t go up, similar enough last year when we lost two games and didn’t go up, this year we didn’t dwell on the losses but we didn’t bask in the victories that long either, Peter is all about game on game, improving every game. We play training games and it is impossible to tell who will be in the next day, there is such a high standard, this year there was five or six new lads brought onto the panel and they’ve nearly made an impact straight away getting onto the matchday twenty six which is very unusual, normally you have a two or three year period to try break in, that is one positive for this year”.
When Clare overcame Limerick in 2012 to qualify for a first Munster final in twelve years, Dermot Snr was among the first people on the field in the Gaelic Grounds congratulating players. It was the same in Ennis two years ago and two weeks ago following victories over Cork and Tipperary but it is also the case for league games, home or away, he’s part of the genuine Clare football supporting cohort always keen to pay homage to the men doing battle. “For me as a player and now as a mentor or manager, those fifteen minutes after a game are what it’s all about, you can’t replace that, you’re in the stand when the final whistle blows after a good victory and I saw it during the league, you’re trying to get down steps or jumping barriers to get in and meet the lads because you’re on that high yourself, it must be very special for players now because the level the game is gone to and the effort they are putting in. I see it with the two Clearys (Eoin and Conor) and Enda (Coughlan) before Dermot, what they are putting into the game compared to our time, they are dedicating their lives to it, forget about three days a week training, you’ve the diet, S&C, everything is about recovery the following day, I take my hat off to an inter-county player at the minute, you’re trying to get out on the field to meet these lads to get the message across that you know you’re proud of what they are doing”.
Navigating past stewards to get out on the field following the match can itself be as tough as some championship encounters. “Sometimes I think it would be easier to get into Fort Knocks than to get into Cusack Park, there is always some fella with a bib trying to stop you, you just put your head down and take your chances,” he explained.
That quarter of an hour following the final whistle is a special time, Dermot Jnr agreed. “There’s no better feeling after a game, it was special after the Kildare game to meet those people who travel the length and breadth of the country every year, year on year to support us. GAA is nothing without the support you receive, it is something we really appreciate”.
Part of the victorious 1992 panel, mention of the famous 2-10 0-12 victory in the Gaelic Grounds brings a smile to Dermot’s face. “On the day it was just a blur, bar inside the camp there was no expectation, John Maughan was a motivator, I’m looking at the 1992 photo there and it is 2025 now, it is like a night and day, John was the coach, trainer, manager, he did everything, all the physical training, all the drills and then he had his selectors Noel Walsh and Pat Hanrahan, nowadays you can pick a number on the amount of people involved. I’ll never forget coming back into Ennis that night, they were lining both sides of the road, there was queues coming up along, we travelled by car that time, we didn’t travel by bus, the roads were jammed with traffic jams all the way in, we came through Newmarket-on-Fergus and Clarecastle because there was no motorway and the crowd was something else. Coming back to my own club was special, Aiden Moloney was involved, a clubmate of mine who I played senior football for nearly twenty years, Michael Rowan was with us too, there was a lorry a couple of nights after in Quilty, they are memories to stay with me for a long time”.
Their training under Maughan sparked some ideas for Ger Loughnane and Mike McNamara while their achievement would also inspire Clare’s hurlers to go on to win two All-Irelands in 1995 and 1997. “We were on the hill in Shannon a lot of nights, you’d rather be somewhere else and there’d be a lot more hills you’d pick, Ger Loughnane was there and he was taking notes on the amount of runs, we knew Ger Loughnane that time but it was pre-1995 so we were more concentrating on getting our breath back as quick as we could,” Dermot recalled.
With the hurlers reaching the summit and tasting All-Ireland glory it has inspired the footballers and for Dermot Jnr to see his first-cousin Conor Cleary achieve on the biggest stage was extra special. “It was a monumental occasion for them to win the Liam MacCarthy last year, they are an inspiration too because it’s tough after suffering so many setbacks, they were getting to Munster finals but were just coming out on the wrong side but they kept plugging away, it is something you really have to look up to and admire. When you talk to Conor (Cleary), he would say it is all worth it at the end of the day, I know they had no luck against Waterford but you can’t doubt that Clare team, they will bounce back again and they have proved that time and time again, that is something we will look to because the last two Munster finals haven’t gone our way but we will keep plugging away and hopefully we’ll come out on the right side”.
When it comes to resilience, twenty five year old Dermot’s ability to bounce back from two anterior cruciate ligament injuries, a broken ankle and a fractured foot and lead the line at inter-county level even draws rare praise from his father. “I wouldn’t be a great man to dish out the praise to him but he has come back from the face of adversity, three of his injuries were career-finishing injuries, there was two cruciates and he broke the leg and dislocated the ankle above in Newry, he had two fractures of his feet outside of them injuries, to come back to that level, you might be able to come back at club level but to come back at inter-county the highest level is fair credit. It is only right to mention the people that did get him back, Johnny McKenna the surgeon, Ray Moran, Michelle Downes the physio in Doonaha, they were all serious injuries, there is fair credit due to the player for making it back in the face of adversity”.
Advice is always forthcoming from his father if needed, Dermot Jnr noted but he admitted he’s happy to avoid him if things don’t go well on the pitch. “If you know yourself you didn’t play well you’d leave the phone down for a few days or tip away for a spin. He coached me all the way up along, we’ve gone our different paths since but I can always look forward to getting that bit of advice, he is always there”. He hasn’t viewed old footage of his father in action to revert back with his own pieces of feedback, “I haven’t seen much of it but I’d say it was rough and tumble, it was a different kind of game”.
This year, Dermot Snr is in charge of Kilrush Shamrocks, a side he previously coached to Clare IFC success along with completing the same feat for Clondegad and Kilmihil. When asked if he would ever be tempted to manage a senior club to face up against his own son, he replied, “I’d never do it. I’ve got loads of offers, I’ve been with Clondegad, Kilmihil and Kilrush before to coach them to intermediate championships, the offer has come from multiple clubs but I could never do it, I coached a lot of that Kilmurry team since they were five years of age, Dermot, Daniel Walsh, David Sexton, Diarmuid King, Caoilfhinn O’Dea, no matter who they are playing I’d want Kilmurry Ibrickane to win. My job is to coach a team to win a championship so if I want Kilmurry to win then it wouldn’t sit easy with me, it wouldn’t be in me, I’m a Kilmurry man at the end of the day so intermediate suits me because I’m not going in contact with this man and having to outgun him, I don’t think it will ever happen”.
Such a stance pleases Kilmurry Ibrickane’s current captain who laughes at the hypothetical scenario of getting to knock a team managed by his father out of the Clare SFC. “We’ll stay separate that way, it is suiting at the moment with him at intermediate and me at senior, there’ll be no fall out in the family”.
Within the club, one of his good friends Andrew Shannon has emigrated in recent weeks. The sacrifice involved in playing at inter-county and even club level is often credited with keeping lads at home. “Emmet (McMahon) mentioned a few weeks back that there is great pride in playing for Clare. I’d never say never, you never know what the future holds, you can’t begrudge fellas going away like Andrew Shannon has been a great servant to us the last few years, there’s been multiple lads like that, for club players the amount of effort they put in and don’t get the recognition, Andrew is a great example because he’d be there every night at the field training for the whole year, it is nearly like an inter-county set-up just a little less of a commitment but it is still nine or ten months of the year. With Clare you bask on the big days, it is something you can’t fault lads if they want to explore the world”.
Sunday is one of those big days for Clare football. “When you’re a young lad watching or going to games it is something you dream of doing, we’ve been lucky the last few years to get to Munster finals and to experience the big days, they don’t last forever, time flies and in a few years time you won’t be able to play in these games and you’ll be watching on because time waits for no man, it is important to take them in as they come along and make the most of them”.
Matching the Kerry spine is key for Clare to have a positive outcome on Sunday, according to 1992 Munster SFC winner Dermot. “I look at Clare teams of the past and I look at this team, I don’t think I’ve seen a better spread of scoring forwards, the one problem I thought he (Peter Keane) would have at the start of the year was trying to marry all the forwards together, they are all the top scoring forwards for their club, Emmet McMahon, Aaron Griffin, Keelan Sexton, Eoin Cleary, Mark McInerney, it doesn’t matter what county in Ireland Clare have firepower that is good as any team. The spine of Kerry is going to be strong, if we can hold that spine with David Clifford inside, Paudie Clifford is gone so Seanie O’Shea will go to eleven, if we can close out our danger men then I would back Brian Mc(Namara) and Emmet against Barry Dan and Joe O’Connor, if we can control those key areas get a grip there then that is the right time to have a go, they are playing in their backyard and training there, it is different to Cusack Park and the advantage shifts straight away, I would say get on top of the key areas and have a go because we have the firepower to do it”.
One of Keane’s positive impacts as Clare manager has been putting an emphasis on shooting. “He says it day in day out that he doesn’t care who scores so long as the man in the right position is getting the ball, with the two point arc and the way defences are working the ball out it is important that you are staying patient, I know it didn’t go to plan against Offaly when we were under pressure but it is something we have looked back on and tried to learn from there, creating spaces for others and trying to get the right man on the ball, there’s good shooters there with Eoin, Mark and Emmet so if we can get from number two to fifteen on the ball and they put it over it doesn’t matter as long as it goes over,” Dermot Jnr noted.
Anticipation is building in West Clare with the Munster final featuring in the majority of conversations. “You can feel the buzz lifting already here in West Clare, it’s grand for me but maybe not so much for Dermot because you’re trying to keep your head down and focus, you’d hope lads will use the ferry on Sunday morning or Saturday morning if they want to have a few refreshments on Saturday night and get behind the guys,” Dermot said.
Build-up for big games must be embraced, the secondary school teacher at St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon commented, “If you don’t look forward to these games you shouldn’t be playing. With the county finals with the club, you can’t get away from it, you’re always going to meet someone around, there is always someone wanting to chat about it. With Clare, it’s early in the year and you’re trying to get to work and home to avoid the fuss, concentrate on your own performance and have yourself in the best possible mindset and condition you can be”.
On the field, Dermot Coughlan will be leading the Clare attack and doing his best to try taste provincial glory on Sunday. Off the field, another Dermot Coughlan will be kicking every ball and appreciating everything the players in saffron and blue are doing for the Banner cause.
