Coffey first came to Gaelic football prominence as a student at
Goud Counsel College in
New Ross when he was part of a Leinster Junior Colleges Championship title-winning team in the early fifties. His first appearance with the
Kerry senior football team was in a London tournament game in 1956. Coffey made his competitive debut two years later and won the first of seven successive
Munster Championship titles that year. He won his first
All-Ireland Championship title at centre-back in
1959, before coming on as a substitute to claim a second winners' medal after a defeat of
Roscommon in
1962. Coffey was also a two-time All-Ireland runner-up and was involved in three
National League title-winning teams. He spent his entire club career with
Clanna Gael in Dublin before later becoming involved with the
Kilmacud Crokes club. Coffey was a selector with the
Dublin minor team that beat Kerry to win the
1979 All-Ireland Minor Championship title. ==Personal life and death==