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.

What’s certain is that Collins will be the longest serving inter-county senior football manager with the same county whenever action resumes.

Despite what he terms a couple of ‘very poor’ Championship campaigns in the Covid era - two games, two defeats - the graph is still pointing upwards for the Banner who have won 14 Championship games in total under Collins, double the amount they recorded between 2001 and his appointment in late 2013.

They are an established Division 2 team now too, flirting with promotion in each of the last two seasons, though in the last couple of winters Collins acknowledges he has thought long and hard about whether to return.

“There were some unfinished issues that needed to be tidied before you could consider coming back but thankfully those things did get tidied up,” said Collins, who is well aware that all managers have a shelf life. “The question of knowing when to go is important. It’s obviously been a difficult couple of years with Covid but I love what I do and the lads are fine with me and I’ve got a great group of people around me. Honestly, I feel as enthusiastic about it as I did on day one.

“As long as we can keep an upward trend, and as long as we’re not disimproving anything, then I’m delighted to keep at it. I’ve never taken anything more than a one-year term so that you can weigh all those things up after each season and, hopefully, make the right decision.”

Collins is glad that the pre-season games are going ahead in January and isn’t overly concerned about the two fixture alterations so far. Updates and amendments to pre-season fixtures across the country have been flying out all week.

“You’d like to think that with all the socialising going on around Christmas and things calming down a bit since then that the Covid situation might settle a bit generally,” said Collins, who confirmed that Conal O hAinifein, a starter against Kerry last June, is taking a year out though David Tubridy is back for another campaign.

“We are down players, of course we are, but sure everybody is. There’s no point in talking about it because it’s a fact of life. We have a couple of guys involved in club action, a few are unavailable with injuries and a few are to do with Covid but it’s all part and parcel of the story. I wouldn’t be getting too hung up on it.

“Ultimately it’s an opportunity for someone else to stake a claim to a jersey.”

Collins was a high profile advocate for change ahead of October’s Special Congress vote on football Championship reform. In the end, reform wasn’t delivered though the subsequent 2022 Championship draw at least offered some respite for Clare, keeping them on the opposite side of the draw to Cork and Kerry until a potential Munster final.

“Look, change is badly needed, we’re roaring out for change but people know my feelings on that and at this stage I’ve said enough on that,” said Collins. “All I’ll add is that I have great faith in Larry McCarthy to push this on and, it’s going to happen, change is going to happen, it’s just that it mightn’t be this year as we’d hoped.

“Our own Championship record has been very poor the last couple of years but it’s very tough going down to play Kerry in a knock-out competition. This year, we’ve been given a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, the draw has kept us away from them and please God we’ll put in a very good Championship. That’s what we’re hoping for because there’s no hiding away from it, our Championship record has been poor in those years when there was no back door.”