Coughlan hoping for a performance at the very least from improving Clare in Killarney

THESE days when every football Sunday comes – and nearly every hurling Sunday too – it’s not a matter of how anymore, but how many sweepers will be used in the defensive strategies of the two teams going into championship combat.

Thing is, the longest serving Clare player in Enda Coughlan is more familiar with the strategy than most - it comes with him being one of the first thrust into the role when he was handpicked for the job by then Clare manager John Kennedy.

And, it was against Kerry. Back in 2004.

“It’s a long time ago now,” laughs Coughlan. “My championship debut. Sometimes you’d be hoping for an easier start, but it was against Kerry in Cusack Park, even though it was a nice game to start off with in one way, to put yourself up against the best, but in another way it was tough enough. I remember Eoin Brosnan was running through the same day and it was fair hard to stop him.

“I was just 18 and a sweeper, named at full-forward I went back from the start. Even though I was young I would have played that sweeper’s role at club level a bit, but now the way the game has gone everyone is playing the sweeper in some shape or form and it just seems to be clogged up everywhere,” he adds.

But it’s clogging up Kerry that will be Clare’s modus operandi on Sunday, while at the same time they’ll be striving to play a more expansive game than they were allowed to against a Limerick side that committed huge numbers to defence.

“During the league teams didn’t go as defensive as Limerick did against us,” says Coughlan, “so it took us a while to break down Limerick. And we weren’t happy with our performance, but at the end of the day we won a championship game.

“I’ve been there a long few years and it’s not too many championship games that we’ve won that we were disappointed with afterwards. I think that’s a good sign of the team, that we’re progressing, that we want a performance everyday and we’re not just happy to scrape over the line.”

Of course, scraping over the line against Kerry would bring a different emotion altogether, the stuff of dreams, while at the same time being the reality they’re striving for and have been shooting towards during their year of huge progress already.

Not that it would be anything new to Coughlan, or his Kilmurry-Ibrickane colleagues in the Clare set-up Martin McMahon and Shane Hickey, all of whom have grown well used to slugging it out with Kerry opposition over the years.

It means there’s no inferiority complex when comes to Kerry — all thanks to Kilmurry’s wins over Miltown-Castlemaine on their way to Munster Club glory in 2004, against Kerins O’Rahillys in their 2009 Munster final win and two memorable, albeit losing days out, against Dr Crokes in 2011 and ’12.

No inferiority complex because “we had as many medals as they had at club level,” says Coughlan. “In the Munster final against O’Rahillys we had it over them because we actually had won a Munster title and they didn’t and we beat them by a point. While the Crokes games were always tight even though in other games in Munster and in Kerry they seemed to steam-roll teams. That’s no consolation to us, because they beat us by three points in Killarney and a point in Quilty, but running them close showed that we were well able to compete with them,” he adds.

Just what Clare will be striving for on Sunday, with the Kilmurry-Ibrickane crew again to the fore – Martin McMahon a definite starter, while Coughlan and Hickey, who had impressive cameos in the victory over Limerick, also hoping to figure, whether as starters or impact subs.

“There’s confidence there from winning the league,” says Coughlan.

“The confidence is there since that day. The lads have been flying at training so we can’t really explain the flat performance against Limerick but we’re hoping to get that right this time.

“In the league final we played a lot of good open football and I think that what suits us. There is a lot young lads there, they’re fit and are able to run and I think Killarney will suit them, while Kerry won’t be as defensive as Limerick were. I would be hoping that our performance will improve. There’s no better way than seeing how good you are than by putting yourself against the best.”