By Cian O'Connell

With momentum generated and respect earned the Clare football revival under Colm Collins continues at a decent clip.

At the end of 2017, though, Collins waited for feedback from the players to see whether he would commit for another campaign with the Banner county.

"The first thing is it is very important for the players, I felt the players might have wanted a change because it was a long time to be listening to the same voice so we consulted them," Collins stated about his decision to seek another term. "The County Board were on the following Tuesday and said they wanted us to stay on. So then it was down to the players and I gave them a week.

"At the end of the year we do an internal audit where they give anonymous feedback to the captain and the captain cuts and pastes that feedback and gives it back to us.

"It was positive and the wanted us to stay on and once the lads that were with me decided they would we all said we’d stay on."

Was it difficult to commit once more? "Well the one thing about it is I’m self employed and when I started on this journey first things were pretty dead in construction so it was kind of more therapy than anything else," Collins answers.

"But things have picked up quite a bit now so it’s harder now. But the other thing that has happened is because we have such a tremendous people around us the job isn’t as difficult any more there is a great group involved and everyone does their job and you don’t have to be chasing people so it’s not that bad from that point of view."

How much has that altered as Clare have motored up through the Divisions to establish themselves in Division Two of the Allianz Football League? "Certain things and in some ways it is and in some ways it isn’t," Collins replies when asked is it a bigger job now compared to when starting off with Clare.

"When you’re on the road a while everyone knows their job and does it so well it gets easier form that point of view. One area that has to be up big time is the scouting of the opposition.

"That’s on a serious level now. In a lot of cases you’ know more about the team you are playing against almost than your own team so that is serious alright.

"A lot of that work you have to do yourself and arrange yourself. When you are in Division Four it is getting the whole thing together and getting it right, but in Division Two it's scouting and it's the little things that might get you over the line, a lot of them are one point games and if you have your business done right you’ll be on the right side of that one point."