Colm Collins moves into his 10th Championship campaign as Clare manager tomorrow - though only at the behest of his players.
With Brian Cody’s retirement in Kilkenny last year, Collins became the longest serving inter-county boss at senior level and, the team’s recent relegation to Division Three notwithstanding, he has done a remarkable job by any standards.
He brought Clare from Division Four to Division Two, keeping them there for seven seasons while sometimes contending for Division One, and a pair of All-Ireland quarter-finals, without any notable underage success to speak of.
It’s hardly any wonder that the players would wish for him to continue year after year but, never one for complacency, Collins sounds them out in the form of a private questionnaire all the same.
“The most important thing is the players,” he says. “To my mind, you have no hope of success unless you have a strong majority of the players that want you.
“What we have done in the past, we have given them the opportunity for them to have their say on that anonymously.
“The minute that percentage would drop I would be gone because I don’t think you would have any hope of success unless 80/90% of the players are on your side. Now, you will never keep everyone happy. It is awfully important, that is what has happened over the years I have been in there.”
Collins smiles when it is put to him that there are other factors at play that would potentially impact on his ability to commit to such a demanding job over the course of a decade, such as his family life.
“They don’t suffer, they are glad to see the back of me,” he laughs. “Listen, for someone that loves football like I do, and my particular passion would be Clare football, this is my dream job and I have been very lucky to get this opportunity over the past 10 years.
“It is like a kid that supports Man United and you end up managing them. That is what it is like for me, I have enjoyed every minute of it. Obviously, it will come to an end, but when it does I won’t have any regrets.”
Relegation was a bitter pill to swallow this year as they blew winning positions against both Kildare and Dublin which ultimately cost them and it leaves them out of the All-Ireland race as things stand, despite reaching the quarter-final last year.
But Collins insists that the “results don’t lie”, while enthusiastically embracing the fact that there is a pathway back into the top tier this year by reaching a Munster final, starting with tomorrow’s quarter-final against Cork in Ennis.
“You have to take responsibility for where you are yourself. We still have our fate in our own hands. So you can't really complain in that situation. I think if we bring some of the performances that we put together in the League, to Sunday and we play well, I think we'll be fine. But it's up to ourselves.”
And what if the Tailteann Cup is their lot after tomorrow?
“I'm a massive fan of the Tailteann Cup. I think that for too long in GAA, we'd a situation where inter-county players were training, from counties that weren't successful, were putting in savage hours, and had no realistic chance of being successful. I think this is a massive competition. If that's where you end up, I would embrace it completely.”
But, all told, he’d rather not.
“I don’t want to dress anything up - I would much rather we were playing Division Two football of course and we would much rather be playing in the Sam Maguire but you are where you are on merit.
“You just have to get over these things, I think there is plenty of talent in Clare to come straight back up from Division Three for example, I think it is the nature of Leagues.
“We have had Leagues in the past where we probably have not played as well and we survived.
“I think the important thing is the work keeps getting done at underage level and there is fantastic people working at underage in Clare so I think the players will keep coming through and they will be fine.”
