Clare football manager Colm Collins has hinted that his tenure as the Banner’s senior football manager may be coming to an end.
Following the Munster side’s 2-14 to 0-13 defeat to Mayo on Saturday in Ennis, Collins was asked about his future in the bainisteoirs bib.
While not announcing his departure, Collins did admit that he is considering whether or not he will stay on.
“I have four years done now, so they must be getting well sick of me,” he said. “I don’t know, we’ll see. This evening is not an evening to talk about that. We’ll take a bit of time and think as I said, maybe four years is enough.”
Clare had a remarkable season in 2016 reaching an All-Ireland quarter-final.
This year they had a respectable mid-table finish in Division 2 of the National Football League, beating Cork along the way.
However, the luck of the draw went against the Banner, drawing Kerry in Munster before hosting the 2016 All-Ireland finalists in the qualifiers.
“Kerry and Mayo are probably two and three in the ratings in the country, so I suppose there’s a lot of things going well and I think there is more in them.”
Manager of the senior team since 2014, Collins was full of praise for his players, and their committment to Clare football.
“There is a fantastic bunch of players there, anything they’re asked for, they give. But, at the same time, that’s no consolation this evening.”
Clare led 0-8 to 0-6 at the break. However, they were blown away in the second period as Mayo kicked two goals in quick succession to take control of this round 3A clash.
However, Collins rejected that the flat second half effort was due to fatigue, instead pointing to the losses of Cathal O’Connor (through injury) and Ciaran Russell (black card) as key points in this loss.
“I don’t think it’s fitness, our boys are in great nick, I think we had issues at midfield and we didn’t really have the back up there to deal with losing the two boys – that was a major thing for us.”
Joel Slattery, Pundit Arena
_____
Listen to our preview of the Sunday’s provincial finals on the latest episode of The 16th Man.
https://soundcloud.com/punditarenagaa/we-hear-from-brian-cody-john-kiely-ger-cunningham-and-discuss-the-latest-gaa-news
Read More About: clare football, colm collins, Football, gaa news, mayo gaa
