*Seán Rouine. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ENNISTYMON footballer Seán Rouine has left the Clare panel prior to the start of the Munster senior football championship while members of the U20 squad may be added in the coming weeks.
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Twenty six year old Rouine departed the county panel in the wake of Clare’s Division 3 campaign in the Allianz National Football League.
He was not included in the matchday panel for any of Clare’s nine outings in both the Allianz National Football League and the McGrath Cup for 2026 since receiving the call-up last winter. Respective calf and hamstring injuries did dent the Lahinch man’s prospects of trying to break into the top twenty six. His first cousins, Cillian and Brendy are staple members of the starting fifteen.
Since exiting the county squad, the strength and conditioning coach has returned to the management team of the St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield ladies footballers as head coach. A masters graduate from Setanta College, Rouine is a highly rated coach at Hustle Fitness.
Clare manager Paul Madden has been praised for the manner in which he and his management have created an enjoyable set-up, Rouine is only the second of fifty two footballers that have been on the panel since November to walk away, the other being Eoin Byrne of St Breckan’s.
Madden confirmed to The Clare Echo, “Seán Rouine has left the panel” and acknowledged the commitment involved for players involved. “At the end of the day if you are committing five days a week to it and you are struggling to get into the matchday twenty six then it’s a big commitment, some lads will do it because they might be nineteen or twenty one years of age and they will do it for next year and the year after, Seán is in the age bracket where he has thought if I can’t break into it now and injuries didn’t help”.
Seán had returned to the county squad after a six year gap, he had been part of Colm Collins’ panel in 2019 but was let go during the campaign. His initial breakthrough stemmed following his displays at wing back as the youngest member of the Ennistymon side when they reached the Clare SFC final in 2018. He had also featured in defence for Clare’s minors who reached the 2017 Munster final losing to Kerry 2-21 0-3.
Members of the Clare U20 panel may be added to the senior squad when their campaign concludes, Madden said. “We had two U20s at the start of the year, Evan Cahill and Eoin Byrne, Eoin because he was in the specialist goalkeeper position and Evan because he was on the panel last year. I spoke with Dermot Coughlan who I speak with all the time, we have a good relationship as he would with Joe Hayes, I made it very clear to Dermot what my view was and he agreed, that lads should be pulling up trees for the U20s before they are considered for the seniors. Evan is on our panel and it is merited because he played last year for Clare, he has been pretty much heavily involved with Trench Cup in college and the U20s who are into their sixth game, he has been with them exclusively, he picked up a knock with one of us and couldn’t train with us, we felt if we wanted to get him right for the first round of the U20 championship we left him exclusively with the U20s.
“We’ve been at the U20 games, we’ve seen the players, there’s lots of talent, lots of guys there that to be honest we could have brought into our panel but we felt they needed to earn their stripes with the U20s first and I think that is the way to do it. Even if you are an exceptional talent, you have to play and win with your age-group, I’d be very comfortable with Dermot and his management that they can give them a good foundation. We’ll make a call after the U20s is finished as to whether we will bring lads in or not”.
