*Cillian Rouine. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CILLIAN ROUINE will lead Clare’s senior footballers into the championship arena for the first time this weekend, getting to do is an immense honour and a “huge performance” is required if they are to a great sporting upset against All-Ireland champions Kerry.
Captaining Clare is a privilege, Cillian is quick to point out and the distinction of the role is not lost on the defender who is likely to fill the centre back berth this Saturday when Kerry come to Ennis.
He is the fourth Clare captain in fourteen seasons, following in the footsteps of Gary Brennan (2013-19), Eoin Cleary (2020-23) and Cillian Brennan (2024-25). Cillian has never had any issues in filling big shoes, the Rouine family are one of the great Clare football clans with his father Brendan ‘Beano’ and uncle Joe Joe part of the 1992 Munster SFC winning side. Before Cillian and younger brother Brendy’s breakthrough to the senior side, the Rouines were always ever-presents in supporting Clare football teams across the country.
Therefore it comes as little surprise that his appointment as captain in January by Paul Madden and his management has meant a lot to the family and to Cillian. He was sitting down at home in Lahinch when Madden rang him and outlined his intention to make him captain, the news was then announced to the panel at training in Caherlohan. “It is not something I’ve been playing down, it is an honour for me but also the people around me because they have shaped me to be the person I am, my family I can’t thank them enough like, it is an honour to play for Clare but to be able to represent the teammates that I have because they are all really good people, when times are tough they have been there for each other and been there for me and my family when times have been tough, they are really good people, it has been an honour to represent them, it is an honour to just play football and be friends with them,” Cillian told The Clare Echo.
Those that know Cillian are well aware of his leadership qualities and ability to bring people with him which is why the move to make him captain was an inspired choice. He captained Ennistymon to win their maiden Cusack Cup title in 2023 beating rivals St Breckan’s and was Clare minor football captain when they reached the Munster final in 2018.
Unfortunately for Clare’s senior side, he has only got to captain the side once so far in 2026 with his involvement limited to a thirty minute appearance against Fermanagh in the third round of the Allianz National Football League. He broke his thumb during Clare’s first training session under the new management which required an operation and then tore his hamstring when kicking for the posts in Brewster Park in the middle of February in what was Clare’s first win of Division 3.
Reflecting on his disrupted campaign, Rouine said, “I’ve had unlucky injuries really, I broke my thumb on our first night back training in November, I had to get an operation and I was out for ten weeks. I hit off someone’s elbow, it was. the ‘around the back tackle’ that you see come off for players a lot of the time but I went for it and I hit one of my teammates elbow’s and I came out the worse of it. Then I got back for thirty minutes against Fermanagh and did a hamstring. Without going too deep or anything like that, if you zoom out a bit, sports injuries I’ve dealt with them fairly easily mentally, they aren’t the end of the world”.
Whether it be with club or county, injuries have frequently hindered Cillian be in strains, tears or an ankle operation ahead of the 2023 season. “Injuries are tough there’s no doubt but every footballer deals with injuries, every sports person deals with injuries, it is part of the game, you get injured, you go to physio, you do your rehab and you get back, you try stay healthy for as long as possible, this year wasn’t my first time getting injuries and they won’t be my last either, you just have to get on with it”.
During his spell on the sidelines, he was among the supporters for the O’Callaghans Mills hurlers who reached the Munster intermediate club final. “I’ve big hurling connections in fairness, my cousins play for the Mills, Cormac, Seán and Liam Murphy, Liam was on the Clare minors in the last two years, we’d be big O’Callaghans Mills supporters as well as Inagh/Kilnamona and Ennistymon of course”. His mother, Fiona a native of Tulla hails from a strong hurling family with her brother Michael ‘Lofty’ captaining them to their last Clare SHC title in 2007.
Hamstring tears and the broken thumb had Cillian acting as maor uisce rather than centre back which gave him a different vantage point to study their their league campaign. “It was up and down, there was a lot of good stuff but a lot of stuff we wouldn’t be happy with either. We had chances to push on and unfortunately some things didn’t go our way in different games, we are where we are, we have to park it and move on, look towards the Munster championship and Kerry”.
With the focus on Saturday’s Munster semi-final with Kerry, the twenty five year old said a huge performance is required if they are to cause a big upset. “We’re just focusing on Kerry and delivering a performance, we want to take the key learnings from the league, improve on them, keep up the things we are doing well, try get a performance against Kerry and see where it brings us you never know”.
Losing to Kerry in the last three Munster finals did leave an Effect on Clare when it came to their subsequent All-Ireland campaigns, he felt. “If we are in the Sam Maguire we want to push on there because we would have been unhappy with the last three Munster finals and how we’ve done in the All-Ireland afterwards, I feel like we nearly get hangovers after the Munster finals in the last few years like if you look at it, we played Donegal the first year two weeks after the final, Cork the second year and Down last year, those three games were all winnable at the time but we were still hungover from the Munster final and did terribly in them, they set an unfortunate tone for the rest of the games. If we are in the Sam Maguire we want to build on it and go as far as we can, you never know. If we are in the Tailteann, it is the same thing, build on it, we’ve never been in the Tailteann so we will want to push on and get as far as we can”.
Defeat to Kerry this weekend would see Clare line out in the Tailteann Cup for the first time. “I don’t think it would be a backward step no, you can see the bounce some of the teams have got from it, our full focus is on Kerry but you can see the bounce teams have got off it and there has been a benefit since the GAA brought it in, if we are in it so be it and we will just have to get on with it, hopefully we will get a performance against Kerry and you’d never know what might happen”.
His senior debut arrived in 2021 during Clare’s seventeen point Munster quarter-final loss to Kerry. Over the subsequent seasons in saffron and blue, there’s been plenty of changes, not least the amount of different hairstyles sported by Cillian. “That is my own brain unfortunately and I say the word unfortunately, I get a different notion a good bit, I like to change it up, I’ve had a lot of bad ones, some not so bad ones but a lot of bad ones”.
It’s between the perm of 2022 and an older buzz cut for the worst styles, he admitted. “I let it grow long there a few times and it goes curly alright, the buzz cut I got was a lot worse before, I got an awful buzz cut a few years ago”. The blame for any bad cuts lays firmly with himself and not his cousin, Mikey who runs a successful barbers in Ennistymon, “I get a notion, I watch a few TikTok videos and go in and tell the barber”. There’s nothing radical planned for the championship look this weekend, he said, “I’ll try keep it simple and not draw too much attention to myself coming back from this injury”.
A primary school teacher at Knockanean NS, he is enjoying the temporary relocation to St Flannan’s College. “Whenever anyone asks me where I’m teaching the answer is a bit trickier, the building we’re in at the moment in Flannan’s is unbelievable, we’ll be going back to an even newer building in Knockanean this time next year, things are going well”.
Impressions of Madden and his management have been very positive for Rouine. “They are super. Paul is a great manager, very professional, a sound man, knows his football inside out, knows Clare football inside out. Kieran Murphy is super, he is genius of football, he is really good, Shane Daniels and Ger Quinlan are super lads with really good football knowledge, we’re blessed with the management we have”.
On the prospect of taking down the reigning All-Ireland and Munster champions, Cillian said, “You never know. In the history of sport there has always been upsets, we’re no fools either and we know it would take a huge performance from us to cause that upset but you never know”.
