Derek Coughlan: 'I say to these girls they are the revolution, you're what's going to change Cork football.'
The Cork WU17 team at a bonding day on Long Strand beach in West Cork
Reckon you could trust Derek Coughlan with most jobs. His social feeds reveal a masterful videographer. He’s been a fine writer in this paper. For 20 years in Cork, they boasted of having the safest airport because he was up there with the police service. In his Brighton days, manager Liam Brady chanced him on the bench as sub keeper, on account of his background as a Cork minor footballer.
During Derek’s Cork City time, his job description was defender, though he is forever cherished for the winner against Shels in the 1998 FAI Cup final replay. Nowadays, he helps run Coerver Coaching Munster and 3V3 Ireland with another City cup winner, Denis Behan, and Derek also delivers the football module for Physical Education and Arts students in UCC.
That cup winner still ranks as his proudest day in sport, though another one arrives Sunday, with the Cork City U17 girls he manages in the EA Sports League of Ireland cup final. Just as with the men, a national final against Shamrock Rovers offers hope in another difficult season for the women’s side of the club.
Derek doesn’t describe this gig as a job. He figures he’s leading a revolution. “I say that to these girls when we’re having talks, that they are the revolution, you're what's going to change Cork football. It’s ye here in this dressing room. You are the start of the regeneration.”
He cuts a strikingly calm figure on the touchline, even in the heat of a tense semi-final with Shels. The rapport the girls — some just 14 at the start of the season — have with him is clear, in how they readily approach him for advice during breaks in play.
“I have a 17-year-old daughter. so maybe that helps. I suppose I'm all-in with the girls. I bring a lot of energy. I bring a lot of passion. They mean an awful lot to me, their well-being and their environment. I took that maybe from playing under Stephen Kenny at Bohs, his way of creating an environment for players to flourish in.
“The important thing is the girls are okay with making mistakes. Having no fear of making mistakes is important. But if I'm saying that, and then not really living it on the sideline, it's just words. So I’m very conscious you can't lose the run of yourself. I never really get involved with referees, any of that kind of stuff.
“Your number one aim is to create that environment where the girls feel comfortable, happy, safe. You're trying to get them to express themselves. I say to them, as long as I'm with you, I'm going to try and keep lighting that spark, that can kick you to the next level. With teenagers, of course it’s up and down. But any one of them, at any time, can catch fire, something can click, and that’s our job, to make the next level possible to reach.
“It's a privilege to be coaching these girls, the best talent in Cork, and there's a responsibility with that. These girls are like sponges. They're trying to absorb everything you bring them. I get to give them some of the learnings and the experiences and all of the multiple small things that you need to do to make it as a professional footballer, as a League of Ireland player, the bits I've picked up from working under different managers. The standards they expected, the levels, the intensity, the taking ownership of your journey.
“I tell them to always be curious, and they bring that every time. They want to get better individually, but they also have a huge pride in playing for Cork City, you know. It ties in well with my own background and my own passion for Cork football.”
On a beautiful sunny afternoon in Bishopstown, a last-gasp extra-time semi-final winner from centre-half Anna Cronin, heading home against Shels like her gaffer, lit the spark on an explosion of joy.
“It was brilliant. At this age, it's about development. It's not about winning. We’re changing our team every game. If you start on the bench one week, you’re in the team the next. But it gave them that taste of the competitive side.
“What we concentrated on, before that game, is that this is to win a silver medal. I like that about athletics. You’re not a runner-up, you won a silver medal. It's not just winner takes all. So for the girls that was their silver medal game. An All-Ireland, League of Ireland, silver medal, which is massive. And then, after the final whistle, I had to reverse a bit… we’re not going up to settle…”
He laughs.
“But that game was everything that all of us football-loving, sport-loving people want. A brilliant Shels team, both teams giving everything, trying to be as creative as they can, but still fighting for every ball, and it's all done with honour.”
A gold medal will be hard won on Sunday in Athlone, against a Rovers team full of Ireland U17 internationals.
“They won the Super Cup in Northern Ireland, beat Man United, Brighton. The first Irish team to do it in 30 or 40 years. They are a fantastic squad of really talented players. But that's where our girls have put themselves, in that bracket. They’ve earned this. And if they want to be League of Ireland players, or Ireland players, these are the challenges. But they should be so proud of themselves that they've got there. And it's not another Dublin team taking part.”
So what might a Cork revolution look like?
“I think we find it hard to see the big picture. Think back to when the Ireland women’s team was heading off to Australia for the World Cup. Just five years before that, Katie McCabe was with the rest of the squad at Connolly Hall, on strike about tracksuits and all the rest of it.
“We don't see change day by day. But look at the progress in five years. I was scouting League of Ireland games for Vera Pauw back then. The difference on the pitch now, in the overall standard, is night and day. Fast-forward another five, where can we be?
“I think, if you invest in girls football, there’s a huge chance now, because the investment doesn't need to be as much as the men. For the men to match, say, a team in Denmark, there's a big jump. On the female side that jump isn't as big. But if we leave it go too long it will mirror the men.
“I do see a viable plan for City to be in Europe. We can be a leading team. But it has to be done right. The small things.
“For me, it's about these young players at the club. It's about making them feel that sense of belonging, sense of place in the club that everything is done right by them and for them.
“And over the five years, you're building up this club with these young players, and there'll be more coming in under these girls. And when they are all hitting 19/20, you keep them here with Cork City, rather than losing them to Rovers or Shels or wherever. That's the way we become the leading club in the country, in the female game.
“That's hard, because there's a financial aspect to that, that you have to match. But outside the financial reward, it's getting all the small things right, and creating that environment and culture in the club, that the players want to play for their people. They want to play for their tribe, they want to play for their parents. They want to play for their college classmates. You're driving this desire to play for Cork City.”
His job as head of group strategy and partnerships at Coerver will factor into any revolution. The group this week announced a partnership with the Cork Women’s and Schoolgirls Soccer League to run a weekly academy and help identify the next harvest of Cork talent from the grassroots clubs that nourished the current crop, as well provide education for coaches.
Might the revolution involve the figurehead some day adding City women’s senior manager to his lengthy CV?
“Absolutely no idea. This wasn't on my bingo card at all. I don't dwell on my future. I suppose things come up sometimes for me, and if they feel right, and if my intuition or instinct feels that it's the right thing to do, then I'll go with it.
“But I don't have any plan laid out. But I love working with this group of players. I love the club, and I love Cork football. I love Irish football. So I wouldn't rule anything out.”
In an interview with the42.ie, Derek mentioned that the standout memory from his own cup final glory day is not so much the winning goal, but looking down from the Dalymount Park stand with the cup and seeing his father Séamus, All-Ireland winner with the Cork footballers in 1973.
“A GAA man through and through, but he always backed everything I did. Always trusted me. He was looking up at me and the tears were rolling down his face.”
If the Cork girls strike gold Sunday, there might just be one or two more.
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