A general view of Markievicz Park. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
By Cian O’Connell
These are exciting times for Coolera-Strandhill. Last year the senior footballers won a county title for the first time since 2005. That brought hope and excitement, while the adult hurling team in the club continue to make an impact.
Saturday’s CúChulainn League Connacht Division Two Final against Moytura is another opportunity to secure silverware. Throughout the past two decades and a half, though, hurlers have been developed by the progressive Sligo outfit.
Tipperary native Kieran Tobin is still heavily in that process. “Hurling has been on the go really, going back to 2000 or so,” Tobin says. “I'm from Tipperary, Tom Brennan hurled in Carlow, a few others, we put heads together, and we got it going at underage in the 2000s onwards.
“We started to compete in the Féile, we got some great trips around the country. We actually won our Division outright in 2008, so it was building steadily from that. We started fielding senior hurling teams from about 2006 and 2007 onwards.
“We lost a senior final in 2010, but won our first ever senior hurling title in 2018. Again, that was a build up of the squads along the way, to achieve that. We've been in senior ever since, we haven't had any more titles, unfortunately.”
Different challenges have been dealt with throughout the years, but Tobin’s passion for the game remains undiminished. “What you find a lot with a dual club is you build up a squad of younger players, all the way up to senior, and a lot of the focus goes on to senior,” he says.
Developing underage hurlers is crucial for Coolera-Strandhill.
“So, sometimes the underage gets left behind a bit. That probably would have happened to us. We had to rebuild the underage about seven or eight years ago to now, where we again have a pipeline of players coming in every year to the senior panel. That is a balancing act, the focus going to senior can take away from the underage, and vice versa.
“You need a very good grouping of hurling coaches. We are lucky we are at the stage where a lot of our older senior hurlers, who finished are now rolling in to do the underage coaching.
“They might have sons involved, and we've got camogie going in the last year too for the girls. It is getting the balance right, we are going fairly well at senior level at the moment. It is a very competitive county with seven senior clubs.”
Sligo’s progression at senior inter-county level during the past decade offers encouragement. “We have grown it from four clubs to five, six, and now seven,” Tobin says. “For a small county, that is pretty good going. One or two clubs can tend to dominate. Calry/St Joseph's in Sligo won a lot of titles at senior level over the years, we broke in to win one and Naomh Eoin did it, too.
“At the moment, it is very open, Easkey are the lead team for the past three years or that, but it will be very competitive this year. Fostering the underage talent to achieve that is the making of it.
“The seven teams are in two groups of three and four. The top two in each go into the semi-finals. For the size of the county, to have seven at senior level and at underage is quite an achievement that we are proud of.” Coolera-Strandhill’s improvement is a central part in the success story.
Saturday July 27
CúChulainn League Finals
Division 2 Connacht
Coolera Strandhill v Moytura- Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence, 4pm
Division 2 Ulster
Omagh St Enda’s v Naomh Colum Cille- O’Neill’s Healy Park, 1pm
