Colm Collins has been ratified as manager of the Clare senior footballers and 2020 will mark his seventh year in the position.
At a meeting of the Clare County Board on Tuesday evening, club delegates unanimously backed the one-year extension for Collins. He now becomes the third longest-serving Gaelic football manager in the country behind Mickey Harte and Jim Gavin.
Clare GAA chairperson, Joe Cooney praised the Kilmihil native and expressed his desire that they would qualify for the Super 8s under having narrowly missed out on doing so following their fourth-round qualifier one-point defeat to Meath in July.
Cooraclare delegate Sean Chambers remarked that “Clare football has benefited greatly from Colm Collins”.
Speaking after the meeting, Collins confirmed that the same backroom team would be staying on which was “key” in his decision. Head of sport science at UL, Brian Carson will continue as coach along with selectors Enda Coughlan, Declan Downes, Evan Shanahan and All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Declan O’Keeffe. His renewal is for a one year term.
On what he will be hoping to achieve next year, the Cratloe clubman said, “The most important thing when you work with any group of players is to get the best out of them and get them to play to their potential and give them every opportunity to help them achieve, that’s basically it, whatever group ends up on our panel for 2020 we will achieve what we can achieve with that group of players, that would be key”.
Kilmurry Ibrickane’s Dermot Coughlan was ratified as minor football manager. Changes are expected to the make-up of his backroom team.