Warm tributes have been paid by former team-mates to five-time All-Ireland winning Cork dual star Denis Coughlan who died on Friday just two days short of his 81st birthday.Coughlan, who played football with St Nick’s and hurling with its sister club Glen Rovers. He won an All-Ireland medal as a midfielder with Cork in 1973 and won All-Ireland hurling medals in 1970 as a sub and as left half back on the Cork 1976-1978 three-in-a-row team.Fellow dual star Jimmy Barry Murphy of St Finbarr’s, who played with Coughlan on both the 1973 football team and the three-in-a-row hurling team, recalled his Cork team-mate as one of the most elegant and stylish players to grace both codes.“When I was a young lad, my first memory of Denis was seeing him playing in the 1967 All-Ireland football final when he captained Cork against Meath and he was a beautiful footballer, very elegant, always togged out immaculately, he was a brilliant footballer even at that stage.“When I came on the football team in 1973, he was a great mentor and a great role model to me, and then of course he was left half back in the hurling team right through the three in a row team. He always turned up and never played badly – he was a great ambassador for Cork sport.”Captain of the 1973 Cork winning football team, Billy Morgan of Nemo Rangers had similarly fond memories of Coughlan whom he first encountered when St Nick’s beat UCC in a couple of Cork County Football Championship semi-finals in the late 1960s.“Denis was classy – he could kick with both feet and he was good in the air even though he used to slag me that he hated my kickouts but he was a great team player – his passing from midfield into the forwards was always top notch – he was one of the best really.”All-Ireland winning Cork hurler Charlie McCarthy hurled with Coughlan through most of the 1970s and he too paid a warm tribute to the Glen Rovers man, who in addition to enjoying All-Ireland success with Cork won All-Ireland club medals with the Glen in 1973 and 1977.“Denis was an outstanding half back for the Cork three-in-a-row team – he was a great hurler, great skill work, he could strike right and left, no bother – you could always depend on him to do a job for you whenever he went out to play and he was a lovely guy – a gentleman on and off the field.”Coughlan is survived by his wife, Margaret, son Jonathan and daughters Ciara and Margaret Ann.