Niall Coakley has taken the road less travelled in Gaelic football.
First of all, the Cork man plays his club football with St Jude’s in Dublin. The Carrigaline native transferred to the culchie corner of Dublin’s southside in 2015 after spending a year trekking the breadth of the country to continue playing for his home club.
He bit the bullet three years ago, transferring to St Jude’s and following the trail blazed by fellow Cork man Barry Fitzgerald, Killian O’Reilly from Cavan, Ciaran Fitzgerald from Kildare, Billy Sheehan from Kerry and a number of others born and raised outside of the capital city.
He didn’t feel great about it, when his club won the intermediate club title in Cork the very year he made the move, but with the Templeogue, Tymon based club catering well for players who are working in Dublin and seeking club football in their adopted home, the homely club spirit there has seen Coakley has settle down just fine.
“We’re all great buds, we socialise together, maybe too much at times,” he laughs on Monday’s GAA Hour with Colm Parkinson.
“I feel like one of the lads, and I’m sure the lads who joined this year are the same,” he continued.
A good buzz at training and a team spirit is half the battle and despite struggling to get to the pitch of the physicality training with Jude’s in those early days, Coakley has played the football of his life for his new club over the last few years.
The type of football that saw him earn his first call-up to the Cork county panel arrived in 2016. He’d never even played underage for Cork before, but he went onto make his championship debut in the Munster final against Kerry in 2017 when Peadar Healy was the manager.
A complete roller-coaster ride for the Rebel, his journey was about to take another twist prior to the 2018 season he got a phone-call from the county’s new manager Ronan McCarthy, telling him he was dropped.
The way he found out, was cruel.
“At the time, I knew he was ringing around, because I could see lads leaving the WhatsApp group and that’s the way you know about everything these days, isn’t it, through WhatsApp.
“We were playing Cuala in the quarter final of the county up here last year, and I got a phone-call the night before saying we’ll be meeting as a squad in the next couple of weeks and it’s bad news, you won’t be involved,” he said.
Imagine that, waiting by your phone, praying it doesn’t ring out. Unsurprisingly, he was disappointed to be cut, but typically he’s looking on the bright side.
“I was a bit disappointed, I’m not too sure how much of me he’d know about, if that makes sense in that I wouldn’t have been playing senior football in Cork and I was in and out of the Cork team in 2017…It took me a while to fully get over it but in the end, I’ve been able to put a lot more into work, a lot more into spending time with friends and family, and obviously, a lot more in with the club.”
And now he’s showing Cork what they’re missing. At the weekend he scored 1-4 as underdogs St Jude’s knocked out the Ballymun galacticos from the Dubin SFC, and he’s looking forward to a semi-final clash in the country’s most competitive football championship.
Swings and roundabouts.
Listen to this Coakley interview and much more from Monday’s GAA Hour Show here.
WATCH: Liverpool BOTTLED the title race 🤬 | Who will win the Premier League?
