Coughlan does it for the parish

By Shane Brophy

Christy Coughlan has been a long time soldiering with Templederry and he said Sunday’s O Riain Cup win was as much for everyone in the parish than the group of players.

“We probably didn’t play well in the first half but that was probably down to how much it means to us,” he admitted.

“There was probably a lot of tension and this group just want to do so well for the people of the parish and the community and we probably didn’t do ourselves justice in the first half and once we started hurling, we showed what we could do and delighted to do it on the biggest day in Tipperary hurling.

“We are just delighted for the people. It isn’t about any one individual, it’s about the community and the parish. There are people here after two years that might not have met each other.

“Hurling means so much to us as a group and the people of Templederry. I’ll give you an example. Our former parish pPriest Fr Willie Teehan gave me a ring during the week to wish us well as he knows what it means for the community.”

Templederry have endured some bitter disappointments in recent years in the knockout stages but the full back felt that experience stood of them.

“The value of that little bit of experience stood to us,” he felt.

“We have had great days in the past, but probably days we didn’t do ourselves justice and that stood to us as we knew we needed to use the ball a bit better. The workrate and intensity was there so it was about getting on the breaking ball, using the ball better, playing to our strengths.”