Career
Club
Coughlan plays his club hurling with the famous Newtownshandrum club and has enjoyed much success. That year Newtown reached the final of the county senior championship where reigning champions Sarsfield"s attempted to retain their title. While the opening half saw little separating the sides Newtown went on the rampage in the second-half and the final score of 3-22 to 1-12 gave Coughlan his first county winners" medal.
Newtownshandrum later defeated Ballygunner by 2-11 to 2-9 to claim the Munster club title.
Inter-county
Coughlan first played for the Cork minor hurling team as a sixteen-year-old in 2008. That year he came on as a substitute to claim a Munster title following a 0-19 to 0-18 victory over Tipperary.
lieutenant was Coughlan"s only success in that grade before joining the Cork under-21 team Coughlan made his senior debut for Cork in a Waterford Crystal Cup game against UCC in 2011.
He later made his championship debut against Laois in the All-Ireland qualifiers, a game in which he scored two goals.
