Roddy raring to go

Roddy Collins has barely had time to think since his return to football management with Monaghan United earlier in the week, following a thirteen-month hiatus after a brief and incident filled spell as manager of Cork City before last season.

However, now that he is back with the surprise First Division packages of last season, he is excited to be getting back into the swing of things, especially with a club that enjoys such a solid base. And Collins isn’t exactly new to Monaghan United, having enjoyed an interest in them for the last few years.

“My future son in law plays for them for the past three years so I would have had an association with Monaghan. I’ve been at a few of their games and I know Mick Cooke and just sitting around the table listening to how the team was run was great.

“Then at the last minute Mick departed to go to Drogheda so my son-in- law said ‘Rod. You would enjoy it up there, it’s a great bunch of lads.’ I said ‘right, give the chairman my number,’ and we set up a meeting. They were nice people, very down to earth, very straightforward, no crap, which was nice. I knew what I was coming up against. Once I met them I knew they were genuine.”

Collins has inherited a side that enjoyed a brief spell in the Premier Division by default, if only for a few days, and the Dubliner knows that the players he has are more than capable of earning the right to play Premier Division football by winning the league.

“There’s a squad there, they nearly got promoted last year so you have to respect the work they have done. A few moved on, a few good ones came in. Shane Barrett, Dave Rodgers, Fabio [Declan] O’Brien, Rocco [John Reilly], they are four good acquisitions. And you are looking at a few young kids to throw in also, so there’s a few. Monaghan train in Dublin which helps attract players, because the travel arrangements are better. But listen, back when I played for Athlone and Dundalk and that, we always trained in Dublin. We only saw the ground when we played.”

“I watch a lot of schoolboy football due to my sons involvement so there are two or three I will be inviting up when their season ends. I have no problem playing young players, absolutely not. If they have the right attitude it’s fine. We have a kid on the left at the moment who looks good. I’ll be looking at the junior leagues, I’m going up to Clones to look at a young striker so I’ll have no problem finding the right type of player for the club because it is a club that is not going to go bankrupt, which is brilliant. If they say they are giving you a certain amount of money, they give it.”

Monaghan face Waterford United tomorrow night and Collins is happy to have Aidan Lynch alongside him in the dugout as assistant manager, keeping a bit of continuity with last season’s successful set-up.

“Aido was already with Monaghan as a player, he retired last year so he just automatically slotted in beside Mick [Cooke] as a senior lad, so why change it? Why change what was good last year? Leave everything as is and then see what I can bring to the table to help it then,” said Collins, who hopes for an immediate hands-on involvement to tomorrow’s game, despite only starting his job at the start of the week.

“I won’t leave it all to Aidan. I’ll sit down and have a good chat with him, look at the starting eleven, ask him different reasons for different things. He’ll put the starting eleven down and then we’ll have a chat about it. We’ll come to an agreement and go from there. Once I get a look at them, even half a game, I’ll know.

“I will know everything there is to know by the time we go to Ballybofey. I took the training last night, time is of the essence, there is no waiting around in football. I’m absolutely on top of it,” said Collins.

Stay tuned over the coming days for even more on the most colorful man in LoI football.