Underdog tag suited us, says Cool Cathal
Cathal Parlon had put down a tough but productive hour against favourites Oulart-the-Ballagh and had a word for those who’d written him and his teammates off.
“It’ll take a while for this to sink in. We’ve had a tough few years and I just got the feeling last week that they might have underestimated us a little bit. I don’t think they thought we were as good as we are.
“I heard one old lad say last week he was surprised Coolderry were in the final, but we felt good and we kept that quiet all the week. All the media (focus) was on Oulart all the week, and we’ve had great belief in each other all year.
“I don’t think we even played that well on Sunday but we worked our backsides off, all for each other.
“The outside world didn’t really know that much about us but we felt good.”
The outside world may be ignorant of the heritage behind the green and white jerseys of Coolderry, who draw from Kilcolman, Ballybritt and Coolderry near the Tipperary border, a catchment of about 350 homes, but within Offaly itself they’ve always cast a long shadow.
Pat Teehan is the current Offaly county chairman, and a proud Coolderry man.
He doesn’t take long to put you in the picture about Coolderry’s background.
“We’re the most successful club in Offaly, with 29 senior club titles going back to 1899, and we’ve always had a huge level of consistency – we’ve won a title in every decade apart from the nineties, when we had a break between titles from 1986 to 2004.”
Even then Coolderry were plotting.
The focus had switched to underage development and the hard work put in with the kids soon bore fruit.
Teehan explained: “We wouldn’t have been successful at underage level up to that time, but then the titles started coming – U12, U14, minor.”
Part of the fun at any big club game is tracing the underage successes in the club profiles featured in the programme – and trying to work out which of the men on the field featured in those youthful successes. Teehan can help with the guessing.
“Some of the lads who played Sunday would have All-Ireland Féile medals, and a few of them – Brian Carroll, Joe Brady, Barry Teehan and Brendan O’Meara, the captain – would have Leinster minor championship medals from 2000, so there’s good experience there.”
Yet for all that, it’s fair to say that Coolderry wouldn’t be a name that resonates in the hurling world the way Birr does, for instance. Last Sunday was their first provincial title, a pretty poor strike rate from six ventures into the Leinster club.
Teehan can pick out what separates the mindset of the current side from that of their predecessors, though.
“The difference between this side and previous Coolderry sides in the Leinster club is that in the past we probably would have been guilty of being satisfied with a county title – the year’s work was done then, if you like.
“But since Ken Hogan got involved as manager, he’s instilled the belief that you can go further, and that was visible in the aftermath of the county title. The celebrations were relatively low key, the lads went back training the following Friday and played a match that weekend – they wanted to give the provincial championship a good go.”
The reference to former Tipperary goalkeeper and manager Hogan is a telling one. His guidance from the sideline was a feature of Sunday’s game, and Teehan says one of the features of his management is his ability to blend styles.
“He’s certainly brought a missing ingredient,” says Teehan.
“He’s won it all himself, he’s a great communicator, his people skills are second to none, and in addition to all of that he’s a very good coach. He’s probably brought in a bit of Tipperary steel and married that to the direct type of hurling Offaly play, he’s brought the best of both styles together, and it’s worked very well.”
The Coolderry supporters were elated as they milled around the Nowlan Park pitch on Sunday, mingling with their heroes, but Teehan says they won’t lack focus when it comes to Galway champions Gort in the All-Ireland semi-final.
“They’re very determined, you could see it the other night after they won against Oulart,” says Teehan.
“Lads were saying, ‘we’ve come this far, we won’t stop now’.
“I’ll put it this way: if they lose to Gort it’s because they’re not good enough. They won’t sit back and say ‘We’re Leinster champions and that’s it for this year’.”
On Sunday’s evidence there’ll be no sitting back. And Cathal Parlon can rest easy in the knowledge that the outside world now knows who Coolderry are.
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