Football's longest-serving manager Colm Collins: 'I love what I do and the lads are fine with me'

Despite what he terms a couple of ‘very poor’ Championship campaigns in the Covid era, Clare have won 14 Championship games in total under Collins, double the amount they recorded between 2001 and his appointment in late 2013

Clare are an established Division 2 team now, flirting with promotion in each of the last two seasons, though in the last couple of winters Colm Collins acknowledges he has thought long and hard about whether to return. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

After two false starts, Colm Collins should belatedly begin his ninth season as Clare football manager on Saturday.

The Banner are slated to host Cork at 2pm in the McGrath Cup though after last Sunday’s postponement of their game with Covid hit Waterford, and the subsequent rescheduling of the Cork game which was initially supposed to go ahead this evening, there are literally no guarantees.