 His father, Martin Coleman Snr, won All-Ireland medals as goalkeeper on Cork's three-in-a-row teams of 1976 to 1978.Coleman joined the Ballinhassig club at a young age and played in all grades at juvenile and underage levels, winning three successive divisional championship titles in the minor grade between 1998 and 2000.By this stage he had already joined the club's junior team as goalkeeper.