“Mark Steven Coughlan. This Is Your Life.”
BORN TO BE A TIGER
At the 1996 Grand Prix in Melbourne, a mother of 4 just happened to sit next to Richmond tiger legend Tommy Hafey. While the Formula one cars roared by, Tommy talked to the mother about his love of footy and especially the Tigers. The mum was anxious to get some tips for her 14-year-old son who was struggling with his footy, especially his pace. “Don’t worry love, he’ll be right”, said Tom. Right indeed Tommy, the lady in question was Judith Coughlan, over from Perth for the Grand Prix, and the son in question was our special guest Mark. The Coughlan family think Mark was born to be a Tiger. It was destiny.
KAMBALDA
Mark Steven Coughlan was born in Perth on April 20, 1982, the 2nd of 4 children born to Steve and Judith Coughlan. He has an older brother Alex 24, younger brother Matt 18 and sister Catherine 15.
Mark spent his first few years living in Kambalda while his father Steve worked in the mining industry. In those formative years Mark (center) showed early indications of good hand /eye co-ordination.
When Mark was four, the opportunity came through the mining industry to move to Fiji, so the family re-located.
It was in Fiji where Mark got his family nickname Moose. The young boy was always chasing mongooses around and at the same time enjoying the culinary delights of the bitter skin of the mango. Mango and mongoose somehow became Moose, a nickname that has remained.
Mark’s mother Judith tells the story of Mark in Fiji when as a 4 year old, after watching an international sporting event (possibly the World Cup soccer), he clenched his little fist at the screen and said to his mum, ”Mum, I don’t want to be just good, I want to be a champion.”
KALGOORLIE
The family moved back to Kalgoorlie 3 days before the coup in Fiji in May 1987.
Mark went to North Kalgoorlie primary school. He was an extremely competitive and talented T ball player and won the under 8 Goldfields champion athlete.
He also starred in his soccer team. It would seem that every time Mark got the ball he would take it the length of the field to try to score a goal. If the side lost he would take it very badly, crying his little heart out.
As a child, Mark was extremely hyperactive. When he was 8 in Kalgoorlie, while neighbourhood friends were on holidays, he took the opportunity to take off with the neighbour’s motorbike. He hooned up the back alleyway, hanging on for dear life. There was only one problem; he didn’t know where the brakes were. He drove straight out onto the main road and was hit by a car. The ambulance driver kindly drove the little bloke home afterwards suffering cuts and bruises.
Mark was always game for anything; he was in a group of 4 kids who were always out on their BMX’ s looking for challenges. At the top of their street in Kalgoorlie were some slime dumps, which were Everest like in their slope.
Mark’s brother Alex would use Mark as the guinea pig, to test a slope for safety. If Mark hit a bump, stacked the bike and hurt himself, it was considered too risky for everyone else.
Once down at the family beach house in Mandurah, Alex dared his younger brother to cycle- jump over an embankment ‘Evil Knieval’ style onto a gravel car park. Mark, who has always been game for anything, saddled up, tore down the side of the house and with a flying leap sailed over the edge. Unfortunately he went straight over the handlebars and ended up with multiple grazes on his body and a severely bruised shoulder.
It’s estimated that the boys went through 8-10 bikes during their time in Kalgoorlie. Alex reckons that Mark owes a lot to him for his toughness and willingness to take on new challenges.
At 10 years of age, while playing beach cricket at a family re-union, Mark fielding at silly point had a ball hit hard in his direction. He launched himself, diving to his right, remarkably taking the ball cleanly in one hand. It was a catch up there with the best and amazed all present. Mark can’t really get too far off the ground, so if he ever takes mark of the day it will be in the horizontal position.
Mark’s sister Catherine tells of the time when she was 3 and Mark 10. Mark told her to close her eyes and open her mouth. This turned out to be her first snail-eating experience. Yes her faith in her big brother was such that she ate the whole snail.
MOVE TO PERTH
When Mark was about 11 years of age, the family moved to Perth. Mark and brother Alex attended Wesley College. Mark played baseball for a year and won the highest batter award in the competition but gave up because he found the game boring.
At Wesley, Mark represented the school in hurdles and also started to refine his cricketing skills. He captained the first XI cricket team in both years 7 and 12. He seriously fancied himself as an all-rounder, until he had to open the batting in the first XI with Sean Marsh, son of the great Geoff. Mark would get his 30s and 40’s while Marsh seemed to get a hundred every time he went out. This convinced Mark that maybe cricket wasn’t his game.
Mark’s mate Alex Davies tells the story of one day at cricket training in year 12. During net practice a batsman hit one ball very high and a number of players positioned themselves to catch it. Hearing Mark giving the loudest shout, his teammates stepped back only to see Mark miss-judge it completely, the ball cannoning into the tender part of his anatomy causing profuse tears and paralysis for quite a few minutes.
EARLY FOOTY DAYS
Cricket was Mark’s first love, although he also loved soccer, but somehow he started to get interested in Aussie Rules. His first attempts at kicking a football were rather forgettable. Mark’s uncle remembers having a kick at the park with Mark when he was about 11. He had no idea how to kick. He would do the classic soccer right angle kick and his uncle remembers thinking at the time, “This kid had better stick to his soccer”.
Mark finally made the transition to Aussie rules and as a young teenager he used to get his fair share of the ball on the field, but his size was his greatest problem. He couldn’t get a regular game in the starting first XVIII until his last year at school. His uncle thought at the time that Mark’s best footy years would come when he grew.
Sure enough in Mark’s last year of school he grew 5 inches (11 cm) and started to hit the weights. When he left school there was no desire to play AFL, but Perth Football Club invited him to come down and train with them. If it wasn’t for the persistence of Murray Cooper the Colt’s coach, he might have ended up playing Amateur footy with his mates.
The first signs of newfound confidence came in the Colts practice games. After 5 Colts games he played the rest of the season in the league team and ended up being drafted to the Tigers at the end of the season.
MUSICAL BACKGROUND
Mark learned the piano when he was younger, but he excelled on the trombone, which he learned for 6-7 years. He played in the Wesley school band and Wesley Jazz band as lead trombone player. His music teacher, Kieran Hurley, said that Mark had a real talent and that if he practiced he would be even better. Sadly he has not picked up the trombone since he left school.
SOCIAL LIFE
Mark has always been a bit of a party animal, but this has been tempered since being at the Tigers. His mate Alex Davies tells of a night out in a Perth nightclub, trying to get friendly with some of the girls on the dance floor. After being rejected by four ladies, Mark was dancing on the stage with great gusto, trying to impress a fifth lady with his moves. Unfortunately, he tripped and fell backwards off the stage destroying his chances in the process.
Once on holidays with his mates at the beach house, Mark retired to bed early. His mates after a while thought that they would wake him up, so they all jumped on him. To their absolute delight, they found Mark sleeping in his mothers green floral dressing gown.
IRKS AND QUIRKS
Mark has picked up the speed of AFL quicker than he got his license. It took 3 attempts before he finally convinced the police that he was worthy of a license.
Mark has a great capacity for misplacing and forgetting things. Once he got on to the plane to Adelaide without his footy boots.
One day when Mark was playing WAFL for Perth against East Fremantle at East Fremantle oval, there was a public announcement that a certain car had left its lights on. A sheepish Cogs moved to the boundary at ¼ time to tell his father to turn the lights off in his car.
At the end of season 2003, the Richmond Football Club went to NZ for its end of year trip. By mistake Mark left his passport in Craig Ednie’s car which Craig had taken bush to Yarrawonga. Despite many calls for its return, the passport didn’t show. Finally with just a couple of hours to go before departure and to his great relief, the letter with the passport was found at 4am by local postal workers and given to a very weary but thankful Mark.
HUMILITY
One of Mark’s great loves is fishing. After returning to the west after season 2003, he and his father went on a day fishing trip off Hillary’s. The Skipper happened to be a Richmond fan, but didn’t recognize Mark. The Skipper asked Mark what he did for a crust and Mark told him he was studying in Melbourne. On being asked if he followed the footy, Mark replied that he barracked for Richmond. It was Steve, Mark’s dad who later filled in the details for the skipper about Mark’s career at Richmond.
CULINARY DELIGHTS
Sister Catherine says that there is never a time when Mark is not hungry and that his eyes are bigger than his stomach. He usually eats 3 lunches and 3 dinners a day but still manages to pass the pinch test at Tigerland.
Brother Alex says that when the family go out to eat, Mark orders double main course and then gets so full he leaves most of the second plate. Mark’s modus operandi is to get food into his mouth one way or another and eat it as quickly as possible, much to his mother’s horror.
THAT HAIR
Family are quick to point out that Mark spends heaps of time in front of the mirror, going through a container of hair gel a week. Every time he comes back to Perth, he has a different hair colour; and sometimes they find it difficult to recognize him on the field.
A TEAMMATE TELLS
Mark’s Richmond teammate Chris Hyde relates a few tales.
In his first year at the club, Mark turned up at the Coburg ground when the team were actually playing at Port Melbourne Mark once left the house without his keys, thinking that Wayne Campbell (his house mate) would be able to let him back in. Little did he realize that Wayne had gone away for the weekend. A quick call to the locksmith fixed that Mark had owned his new car for a week and when Chris asked him about a huge dent in the back. He simply explained, "Yeah I didn’t see that pole”. He drove around in his previous car with the number plate stuck on with blue tac and couldn’t work out why one end kept falling off. Once mark rushed into his University lecture late and tripped down the stairs when trying to find a seat. As soon as he sat down his mobile rang and disturbed everyone further. He spends way too much time on his hair for a male and we’re sure he’s sponsored by Body Bronze Tanning Salons Mark has a reputation for only dating models. He never brings his own towel to training, and always uses Chris’s before he has a chance to. Mark is known as a guy who is academically smart, but sometimes lacks or seems to lack common sense.
PLAYING PROFILE AT RICHMOND
Mark was selected by Richmond with their second round selection (No. 25 overall) in the 2000 National AFL Draft.
After winning the 2003 Jack Dyer Medal Mark struggled with constant groin soreness coming into the 2004 season. Diagnosed as ‘pubic instability’, the injury eventually sidelined the 22-year-old after round five. After rest to treat his injury he was eased back through the VFL and returned for the final two rounds of the AFL season. A strong summer on the track and plenty of hard rehabilitation work has seen Mark play all games in 2005 and Richmond fans are ecstatic to see him performing once again as a vital cog in the midfield.
Player honours: National AFL Rising Star nominee 2002 3rd best and fairest 2002 Best and fairest 2003
Guernsey Number: 24
Height: 187cm
Weight: 84kg
Recruited From: Perth (WA)
Debut: 2001
Date of Birth: 20 April 1982
SUMMARY
Despite of all these stories, Mark’s family believes he has his head screwed on. He doesn’t believe his own publicity and wants to be at Tigerland to see the current crop of players create their own history.
Special thanks to Lindsay, to Jude, Steve, Alex, Matt and Catherine Coughlan, to Chris Hyde and to Mark’s kind friends who were all more than willing to tell tales.
Biggest thanks of all to Mark for being such a good sport.
BORN TO BE A TIGER
At the 1996 Grand Prix in Melbourne, a mother of 4 just happened to sit next to Richmond tiger legend Tommy Hafey. While the Formula one cars roared by, Tommy talked to the mother about his love of footy and especially the Tigers. The mum was anxious to get some tips for her 14-year-old son who was struggling with his footy, especially his pace. “Don’t worry love, he’ll be right”, said Tom. Right indeed Tommy, the lady in question was Judith Coughlan, over from Perth for the Grand Prix, and the son in question was our special guest Mark. The Coughlan family think Mark was born to be a Tiger. It was destiny.
KAMBALDA
Mark Steven Coughlan was born in Perth on April 20, 1982, the 2nd of 4 children born to Steve and Judith Coughlan. He has an older brother Alex 24, younger brother Matt 18 and sister Catherine 15.
Mark spent his first few years living in Kambalda while his father Steve worked in the mining industry. In those formative years Mark (center) showed early indications of good hand /eye co-ordination.
When Mark was four, the opportunity came through the mining industry to move to Fiji, so the family re-located.
It was in Fiji where Mark got his family nickname Moose. The young boy was always chasing mongooses around and at the same time enjoying the culinary delights of the bitter skin of the mango. Mango and mongoose somehow became Moose, a nickname that has remained.
Mark’s mother Judith tells the story of Mark in Fiji when as a 4 year old, after watching an international sporting event (possibly the World Cup soccer), he clenched his little fist at the screen and said to his mum, ”Mum, I don’t want to be just good, I want to be a champion.”
KALGOORLIE
The family moved back to Kalgoorlie 3 days before the coup in Fiji in May 1987.
Mark went to North Kalgoorlie primary school. He was an extremely competitive and talented T ball player and won the under 8 Goldfields champion athlete.
He also starred in his soccer team. It would seem that every time Mark got the ball he would take it the length of the field to try to score a goal. If the side lost he would take it very badly, crying his little heart out.
As a child, Mark was extremely hyperactive. When he was 8 in Kalgoorlie, while neighbourhood friends were on holidays, he took the opportunity to take off with the neighbour’s motorbike. He hooned up the back alleyway, hanging on for dear life. There was only one problem; he didn’t know where the brakes were. He drove straight out onto the main road and was hit by a car. The ambulance driver kindly drove the little bloke home afterwards suffering cuts and bruises.
Mark was always game for anything; he was in a group of 4 kids who were always out on their BMX’ s looking for challenges. At the top of their street in Kalgoorlie were some slime dumps, which were Everest like in their slope.
Mark’s brother Alex would use Mark as the guinea pig, to test a slope for safety. If Mark hit a bump, stacked the bike and hurt himself, it was considered too risky for everyone else.
Once down at the family beach house in Mandurah, Alex dared his younger brother to cycle- jump over an embankment ‘Evil Knieval’ style onto a gravel car park. Mark, who has always been game for anything, saddled up, tore down the side of the house and with a flying leap sailed over the edge. Unfortunately he went straight over the handlebars and ended up with multiple grazes on his body and a severely bruised shoulder.
It’s estimated that the boys went through 8-10 bikes during their time in Kalgoorlie. Alex reckons that Mark owes a lot to him for his toughness and willingness to take on new challenges.
At 10 years of age, while playing beach cricket at a family re-union, Mark fielding at silly point had a ball hit hard in his direction. He launched himself, diving to his right, remarkably taking the ball cleanly in one hand. It was a catch up there with the best and amazed all present. Mark can’t really get too far off the ground, so if he ever takes mark of the day it will be in the horizontal position.
Mark’s sister Catherine tells of the time when she was 3 and Mark 10. Mark told her to close her eyes and open her mouth. This turned out to be her first snail-eating experience. Yes her faith in her big brother was such that she ate the whole snail.
MOVE TO PERTH
When Mark was about 11 years of age, the family moved to Perth. Mark and brother Alex attended Wesley College. Mark played baseball for a year and won the highest batter award in the competition but gave up because he found the game boring.
At Wesley, Mark represented the school in hurdles and also started to refine his cricketing skills. He captained the first XI cricket team in both years 7 and 12. He seriously fancied himself as an all-rounder, until he had to open the batting in the first XI with Sean Marsh, son of the great Geoff. Mark would get his 30s and 40’s while Marsh seemed to get a hundred every time he went out. This convinced Mark that maybe cricket wasn’t his game.
Mark’s mate Alex Davies tells the story of one day at cricket training in year 12. During net practice a batsman hit one ball very high and a number of players positioned themselves to catch it. Hearing Mark giving the loudest shout, his teammates stepped back only to see Mark miss-judge it completely, the ball cannoning into the tender part of his anatomy causing profuse tears and paralysis for quite a few minutes.
EARLY FOOTY DAYS
Cricket was Mark’s first love, although he also loved soccer, but somehow he started to get interested in Aussie Rules. His first attempts at kicking a football were rather forgettable. Mark’s uncle remembers having a kick at the park with Mark when he was about 11. He had no idea how to kick. He would do the classic soccer right angle kick and his uncle remembers thinking at the time, “This kid had better stick to his soccer”.
Mark finally made the transition to Aussie rules and as a young teenager he used to get his fair share of the ball on the field, but his size was his greatest problem. He couldn’t get a regular game in the starting first XVIII until his last year at school. His uncle thought at the time that Mark’s best footy years would come when he grew.
Sure enough in Mark’s last year of school he grew 5 inches (11 cm) and started to hit the weights. When he left school there was no desire to play AFL, but Perth Football Club invited him to come down and train with them. If it wasn’t for the persistence of Murray Cooper the Colt’s coach, he might have ended up playing Amateur footy with his mates.
The first signs of newfound confidence came in the Colts practice games. After 5 Colts games he played the rest of the season in the league team and ended up being drafted to the Tigers at the end of the season.
MUSICAL BACKGROUND
Mark learned the piano when he was younger, but he excelled on the trombone, which he learned for 6-7 years. He played in the Wesley school band and Wesley Jazz band as lead trombone player. His music teacher, Kieran Hurley, said that Mark had a real talent and that if he practiced he would be even better. Sadly he has not picked up the trombone since he left school.
SOCIAL LIFE
Mark has always been a bit of a party animal, but this has been tempered since being at the Tigers. His mate Alex Davies tells of a night out in a Perth nightclub, trying to get friendly with some of the girls on the dance floor. After being rejected by four ladies, Mark was dancing on the stage with great gusto, trying to impress a fifth lady with his moves. Unfortunately, he tripped and fell backwards off the stage destroying his chances in the process.
Once on holidays with his mates at the beach house, Mark retired to bed early. His mates after a while thought that they would wake him up, so they all jumped on him. To their absolute delight, they found Mark sleeping in his mothers green floral dressing gown.
IRKS AND QUIRKS
Mark has picked up the speed of AFL quicker than he got his license. It took 3 attempts before he finally convinced the police that he was worthy of a license.
Mark has a great capacity for misplacing and forgetting things. Once he got on to the plane to Adelaide without his footy boots.
One day when Mark was playing WAFL for Perth against East Fremantle at East Fremantle oval, there was a public announcement that a certain car had left its lights on. A sheepish Cogs moved to the boundary at ¼ time to tell his father to turn the lights off in his car.
At the end of season 2003, the Richmond Football Club went to NZ for its end of year trip. By mistake Mark left his passport in Craig Ednie’s car which Craig had taken bush to Yarrawonga. Despite many calls for its return, the passport didn’t show. Finally with just a couple of hours to go before departure and to his great relief, the letter with the passport was found at 4am by local postal workers and given to a very weary but thankful Mark.
HUMILITY
One of Mark’s great loves is fishing. After returning to the west after season 2003, he and his father went on a day fishing trip off Hillary’s. The Skipper happened to be a Richmond fan, but didn’t recognize Mark. The Skipper asked Mark what he did for a crust and Mark told him he was studying in Melbourne. On being asked if he followed the footy, Mark replied that he barracked for Richmond. It was Steve, Mark’s dad who later filled in the details for the skipper about Mark’s career at Richmond.
CULINARY DELIGHTS
Sister Catherine says that there is never a time when Mark is not hungry and that his eyes are bigger than his stomach. He usually eats 3 lunches and 3 dinners a day but still manages to pass the pinch test at Tigerland.
Brother Alex says that when the family go out to eat, Mark orders double main course and then gets so full he leaves most of the second plate. Mark’s modus operandi is to get food into his mouth one way or another and eat it as quickly as possible, much to his mother’s horror.
THAT HAIR
Family are quick to point out that Mark spends heaps of time in front of the mirror, going through a container of hair gel a week. Every time he comes back to Perth, he has a different hair colour; and sometimes they find it difficult to recognize him on the field.
A TEAMMATE TELLS
Mark’s Richmond teammate Chris Hyde relates a few tales.
In his first year at the club, Mark turned up at the Coburg ground when the team were actually playing at Port Melbourne Mark once left the house without his keys, thinking that Wayne Campbell (his house mate) would be able to let him back in. Little did he realize that Wayne had gone away for the weekend. A quick call to the locksmith fixed that Mark had owned his new car for a week and when Chris asked him about a huge dent in the back. He simply explained, "Yeah I didn’t see that pole”. He drove around in his previous car with the number plate stuck on with blue tac and couldn’t work out why one end kept falling off. Once mark rushed into his University lecture late and tripped down the stairs when trying to find a seat. As soon as he sat down his mobile rang and disturbed everyone further. He spends way too much time on his hair for a male and we’re sure he’s sponsored by Body Bronze Tanning Salons Mark has a reputation for only dating models. He never brings his own towel to training, and always uses Chris’s before he has a chance to. Mark is known as a guy who is academically smart, but sometimes lacks or seems to lack common sense.
PLAYING PROFILE AT RICHMOND
Mark was selected by Richmond with their second round selection (No. 25 overall) in the 2000 National AFL Draft.
After winning the 2003 Jack Dyer Medal Mark struggled with constant groin soreness coming into the 2004 season. Diagnosed as ‘pubic instability’, the injury eventually sidelined the 22-year-old after round five. After rest to treat his injury he was eased back through the VFL and returned for the final two rounds of the AFL season. A strong summer on the track and plenty of hard rehabilitation work has seen Mark play all games in 2005 and Richmond fans are ecstatic to see him performing once again as a vital cog in the midfield.
Player honours: National AFL Rising Star nominee 2002 3rd best and fairest 2002 Best and fairest 2003
Guernsey Number: 24
Height: 187cm
Weight: 84kg
Recruited From: Perth (WA)
Debut: 2001
Date of Birth: 20 April 1982
SUMMARY
Despite of all these stories, Mark’s family believes he has his head screwed on. He doesn’t believe his own publicity and wants to be at Tigerland to see the current crop of players create their own history.
Special thanks to Lindsay, to Jude, Steve, Alex, Matt and Catherine Coughlan, to Chris Hyde and to Mark’s kind friends who were all more than willing to tell tales.
Biggest thanks of all to Mark for being such a good sport.
