*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE senior football manager, Colm Collins is hopeful COVID-19 will no longer be “as disruptive” for inter-county teams.
Teams across the country have had to deal with the unavailability of players as a result of testing positive for the virus or their designation as close contacts. Collins told The Clare Echo that his senior side have been no different. “COVID has been very difficult but it’s the same for everybody. I think we’re at the point now nearly where most of them would have had it and had it relatively recently so surely it will open things up for us so that it won’t be as disruptive. At any given time I’d say most county teams have about ten players missing, that’s the fact of the matter but hopefully it will be getting better as we go along”.
Collins began his ninth campaign as Clare senior football boss on Saturday with a five point defeat to Cork in the McGrath Cup. “Please God we’ll be a lot better when we play them in the second game of the League than we were today,” he quipped of their showing.
He acknowledged that weather conditions at a windy Hennessy Memorial Park in Miltown Malbay made matters difficult for players. “It’s very hard to make anything of it, conditions were very difficult, it was just to get through it and get it done, we gave a good few lads a start in a Clare jersey, you couldn’t read into anything on that”.
“There isn’t a whole lot you could say about today, we got chances at the start of the game, we didn’t take them but they took their chances and that was it, that’s what was in it really,” Collins added.
Ten players made their first appearance for the county seniors at the weekend, the Kilmihil native confirmed that he and his management will begin cutting the panel from this week. “There’s a good few on the panel at the moment, we’ve decent numbers at training but by the end of January we have to get it down to manageable numbers, that will be happening in the next week or so”.
While Collins was entering his ninth year in the hotseat, the tie marked the beginning of Keith Ricken’s tenure as Cork senior football manager. He was pleased with the initial effort of the Rebels. “I was happy with the workrate and attitude, I’ve been happy with that from the start, their workrate, attitude and commitment to Cork has been magnificent. Hats off to the people who went before me who have done all of that, that is part of their legacy because they picked good guys, we’ve picked up the same guys and brought in a couple of younger guys as an opportunity, we’re creating a culture for this particular group. It’s a match, it’s the McGrath Cup and there’s bigger matches ahead but it’s always nice to have a win”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, the 2009 Sigerson Cup winning manager was quite content to come out of West Clare with a victory. “Clare are a serious side, they have been pushing to try get into Division 1 for the last couple of years, I’d have bit the hand off you for a win here today. I was delighted with the performance in the first half, in the second half it’s always hard for both teams because you’re trying to give every guy a game and you’re emptying benches, it’s not that you are bringing on bad players but it losing the momentum, that happened a bit towards the end. I’m delighted to be here in the home of Clare football, it’s lovely to be invited to anyone’s house and to anyone’s home, I’m delighted to be here and I hope the people got good value for money. The wind was hard even to play with it, the ball could be going over the bar or it could take off. I was happy to get 2-09 today”.
During his youth, Ricken spent summer holidays in Spanish Point and so became accustomed to Hennessy Memorial Park. He did admit that there was a difference in the temperatures from those summer days and the high winds of Saturday. “When you’re on the sideline you’re not too worried about the temperature, having a match brings your heartbeat up anyway, it’s harder for ye sitting down but when you’re involved in a game your heartbeat is up with blood pumping around your body. Over the last couple of years, look at the people who have had no opportunity to get out of houses with COVID and all of that, we had a couple of hundred people watching this match and it was lovely for them, other people followed it on Twitter and it was lovely for them”.
