Payback time for Coughlan as Glen bid to bridge title gap

The club stalwart says he wants to repay teammates who earned him two county medals a decade ago.

Defender Liam Coughlan of Glen Rovers senior hurling team at the media night ahead of the Cork County Senior Hurling Championship final against St Finbarr's of Togher. Picture: Larry Cummins

Liam Coughlan is adamant. He did not win the two county medals he is in possession of. He was given them by starting Glen teammates. They are his and yet they do not feel his. Such refreshing honesty is not to be misconstrued as ungratefulness.

Sunday, thus, is about repayment. Sunday is about earning a medal he is proud and content to call his own.

Coughlan featured in some of the Glen’s earlier round matches during the all-conquering Cork campaigns of 2015 and '16, the former of which was his first year in the senior dressing-room. But when it came to the concluding Sunday both years, he did not stir off the bench.

His first season consistently wearing a Glen jersey numbered one through 15 was 2019. That was also the first of three consecutive seasons where the Glen reached the concluding Sunday. Each time they went back across the bridge empty-handed.

This weekend brings the latest opportunity to win that medal for himself and those who paved the road for him.

“You want to be on the field of play [when you win a county medal],” Coughlan began.

“For me, the last couple of years have been a case of, okay, fellas have kind of given me my two and I want to repay the club and the fellas that won them for me. I want to get my own one and give back to them then as well.

“When I first came onto the panel, the Glen were in a good place. You take that success for granted a small bit and you think it's going to be county finals and happy endings every year, but we've had a lot of ups and downs in the last 10 or so years that I'm around.” 

No greater downer exists than being part of the team that lost Glen Rovers - 27 times winners of the county championship - its 97-year topflight status. Promotion 12 months later meant the relegation episode was parked, but it is never truly out of the picture. Something that seismic never leaves you.

“It'll always be in the back of our minds,” the 29-year-old continued, “that we were the ones that got the Glen relegated. You don't forget that. It's still going to be there, even if we win on Sunday. It still hurts. Just trying to do everything we can now to put things right.” 

Coughlan lined out in attack for that 2023 relegation play-off, as he did for the three-in-a-row of county final defeats.

At midfield for the restorative 2024 Senior A final triumph, his journey back the field continued upon return to Premier Senior ranks. This season and last, the started-out-at-corner-forward Coughlan has been a permanent fixture at corner-back.

Of those three-in-a-row final defeats, it’s the 4-26 to 4-18 extra-time thriller against Blackrock that stands out most and hurts most. It being the covid-interrupted campaign of 2020, the restrictions of the day meant there was no sense at all of what an all-city Cork hurling final should look and feel like. Sunday will at least correct that part of his county final catalogue.

“It was a great game, but we had chances to win it towards the end of normal time, and we didn't take them.

“There were only a few hundred at it. It was nowhere near what should be at a county final between the Glen and Blackrock. It was tough, especially when you lost, to come back to the clubhouse, it was a bit gloomy, and obviously there weren't that many people around because of the whole social distancing, so you were really isolated after the game.” 

The streaming phenomenon ignited by that covid year and the limitations placed on club attendances has fed the current reality where so much club footage is available from the very first weekend of championship action.

The scenario of not very long ago where you’d hang on for the second semi-final to properly size up your final opponents has been replaced by Glen coach Donal O’Rourke sending on to Coughlan clips of the various forwards that will come into his orbit so as to better ready the corner-back for matchday.

“I haven't worked with anyone like Donal, to be honest. His level of detail is second to none. He just lives and breathes hurling. He watches hours of clips. Himself and Peter [O’Keeffe, stats] are absolutely fantastic. They've really pushed us on this year big time.

“They shorten down what we need to watch, what we don't need to see, and they'll have us ready for whatever the occasion is.” 

CORK SPORT

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