Fire still burns brightly for Donegal hurling veteran Declan Coulter

The road in front of Declan Coulter is much shorter than what’s in the rearview mirror but the Setanta ace hasn’t once thought about hanging up his inter-county hurl. 

The Armagh veteran hasn’t struck a sliotar in anger so far in this season’s league campaign. 

After a brilliant 2023 for Setanta, a season where the club won its first ever Ulster Intermediate title, took its toll, Coulter had to go under the knife.  

He is currently recovering from a knee scope but hopes to get back to action soon enough.  

“I had surgery on my knee five weeks ago and I’m working with the physio Colm O’Neill on getting back to fitness,” the four-time Nickey Rackard Cup winner told DonegalLive this week.

“I’m back running which is great. But I’m still a few weeks away from taking part in contact training. When you're 37 you have to take your time to work yourself back to full fitness. 

 “The plan at the time of the surgery was to make it back for the first game in the Nickey Rackard against Armagh and take it from there.”

Donegal are pencilled in to play the first of their five group games in championship on the weekend of April 13/14. 

“The plan is to work me back into the team slowly with me coming into games off the subs bench if Mickey (McCann) thinks I have something to offer and can make a difference. 

“The way the team is playing and the form they have shown in the league with three wins, one draw and one defeat it will not be easy to get back into the team. 

“We are all going to have to fight for the jersey if we want it back. The team has done exceptionally well given there were so many of what are considered first-choice players missing. 

“Danny Curran, Ronan McDerrmott and myself were missing through injury while Ritchie Ryan, Christopher McDermott and Michael O’Donoghue have opted out of the squad for various reasons.      

“That is half a team and, in light of that, what has been achieved this season has been truly remarkable by what really is mostly a young and inexperienced group of players.

“The lads that have come into the squad in the last few years have really stepped up and are playing out of their skin”. 

Coulter agrees tat young lads like Conor Gartland, Liam McKinney, Oisin Patton, Stephen McBride, Conor O’Grady and Brian Óg MacIntyre are all playing well and are key men in the team.

“For a young lad in his first year in the team, Ciaran Curran has done exceptionally well and has nailed down a place in the team. He is playing like a seasoned senior”. 

As the team’s leading marksman for the best part of the seven years,  since he joined the Donegal squad, the Keady native has also been highly impressed with Gerard Gilmore who has taken on the freetaking duties in his absence.  

“Gerard has been shooting the lights out when it comes to scoring. He most definitely took on the role of marksman and he has done it in his stride”.

Coulter also admits it does not come as a surprise that his Setanta clubmate had the free-taking and scoring ability in his armoury.

“Gerard was unfortunate that I was the appointed free taker over the last few years and before that Kevin Campbell was the man. So Gerard  never got a chance. 

“But I know from watching him with Setanta he was always staying back after training practising his shooting and free-taking. 

“He was always interested and, luckily for Donegal, when I broke my thumb at the end of last season he took on the role and he hasn’t looked back.

“He is now the man doing the business in front of the posts which is great.   

“I don’t think I’ll be taking any frees when I come back as long as Gerard is fit and well!” 

As for Saturday’s showdown with Tyrone, boss Mickey McCann has revealed that he’ll be absent his entire Setanta contingent, who had a pre-arranged club holiday booked for this weekend. 

Coulter still sees it as a close game and with promotion to Division 2A already in the bag, the pressure is off and Donegal’s young guns can throw the kitchen sink at it. 

“It is going to be close as it is always the way when Donegal and Tyrone meet. 

“We saw a few weeks ago in the league game in Omagh. It ended in a draw and, in reality, either of them could have won it.

 “Tyrone are going to be physical and in our players' faces and I feel it is going to be very close with no more than a point or two in it either way.” 

Coulter turns 38 later this year and has had a good innings both with his native county and with his adopted one. But he says he’ll keep swinging for as long as he’s enjoying it. 

“When I first played with Donegal, in 2017, it was in Division 3A and back then, for a few years, we were up and down between Division 3A and 3B. 

“One year we would have a good team with all the top players available, and we would do well. And then the following year we would be missing one or two players and we would struggle to survive.

“I often pinch myself these days when I think we are playing and competing in Division 2B of the league and regularly contesting  semi-finals and finals.

“And we’re now looking forward to playing in a new-look Division 2 next season, the highest level Donegal have ever played at.” 

It would be hard to walk away from all of that - especially when you consider what Coulter is still able to offer the team, both on the pitch and off it. 

“But retirement was something that never entered his mind when the curtain came down on Donegal’s 2023 season with that narrow Nickey Rackard Cup final defeat by Wicklow.

“I never thought about calling it a day, no. Maybe if we had won the Nickey Rackard I might have considered it, I’m not sure. 

“But given the way the season ended last year, that final defeat, and just the way it ended for me personally, retirement was not an option. 

“I broke my thumb against Louth, in the group stages of the Nickey Rackard and played no further part in the run to the final. 

“And we led Wicklow by four points at half-time and were the better team in the first half and then we lost our way a bit in the second half.

“Ronan McDermott did his cruciate before half-time but played on in the second half. Ritchie Ryan fractured his tibia shortly after coming on in the second half and also played on.  

“But we had two of our top forwards flying on one wing and we only lost by a couple of points”. 

Considering all of that, it’s little wonder then that winning a fifth Nickey Rackard championship is Coulter’s number one goal for 2024.

“Like all championships, it is a tough one to win. But I believe we have the players and the squad to go all the way and I want to be part of it. 

“Let that be in the starting 15 or coming off the bench, I’ll just be happy to be part of it whatever way Mickey wants to use me.”