Rams boss Hill ready for new challenge

It's a day they have been waiting five long years to come. Their club website, with some sections not updated since their last appearance in the league, may be stuck in the past, but Cobh Ramblers are very much living in the present as their re-instatement to the League of Ireland was confirmed by the FAI this afternoon.

Ramblers last graced the league in 2008 before financial irregularities saw them denied a licence for the following season. Today’s announcement, that they have been awarded a new licence to compete in 2013 and therefore rejoin the league, ends their exile.

However, for manager Dave Hill, the hard work is only about to begin. Hill has been managing the club’s U19 team, who are currently midway through their season, but now the task at hand is to assemble a squad as quickly as possible and organise some friendlies before the league kicks-off in early March.

With many of their First Division competitors already returning to training, Hill is expected to look towards Munster Senior League players to form a decent portion of his squad, but the core of it is expected to be members of the current U19 panel.

There is also a possibility he will inherit some players from Premier Division neighbours Cork City on loan.

“Our last game of the (U19) season is a week after the start of the First Division,” Hill told ExtraTime. “The plan has been to stick with the U19 squad and to add a few to it. I’ve just been concentrating on getting the lads prepared, that’s been the basis of all my work over the last few months.

“I’ve got the base of a squad there and the players I’ve been ear-marking have all been playing in the Munster Senior League anyway and they know about the situation. The only thing we were waiting on really was the green light, which we got today.”

Cobh won’t be caught short when it comes to preparation for the upcoming season, according to Hill, though consolidation is the main aim. While the expected influx from the MSL might take some time to gel, the majority, if not all, their players will have been playing competitive football throughout the winter, so he doesn’t expect fitness to be an issue.

“This season really is just a consolidation of being back in the First Division, there’s not going to be any real high expectations but we will play to win as it comes. We are sure there will be a lot of disappointment, but it’s all going to be a learning curve for the first season.

“Mainly the first year is just about making sure everything is in place so we can eventually move on to bigger and brighter things.”

Of course the bigger and brighter thing that Hill refers to is promotion back to the top-flight. Their last jaunt in the top tier, in 2008, saw them refused a licence the following year after spending beyond their means. This time it’ll be baby steps, making sure they don’t go into the red to reach the promised land of the domestic game.

Hill, however, is positive looking into the future: “Our ambition is to get back into the Premier Division, that’s going to be the goal regardless of what has happened in the past. Everything is onward and upward as far as I can see.”

While their re-instatement is a massive boost to the club, competing in what has regularly been called the graveyard of Irish football may not seem glamorous from the outside. Yet that’s a term that makes Hill spiky – he doesn’t care about the division’s reputation, it’s still the route to the top tier.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of anyone refer to the First Division as a graveyard,” he said. “The only thing I can say about it is that it’s a stepping stone for clubs to get into the Premier Division and whether it will be called a graveyard or an Olympic games it makes no difference to me. It’s a stepping stone to get better and bigger.”

Meanwhile, Cork City manager Tommy Dunne has already touted the idea of a pre-season between the two Leeside outfits. Hill added: “Tommy Dunne wants a pre-season friendly and I’m sure, hopefully, we can get it played at Cobh Ramblers and hopefully it will attract a couple of hundred or maybe even a thousand come to the game. That could be a real kick-start for the club.”

It has also been mooted that some fringe players at Turner’s Cross may make the move to St Colman’s Park temporarily. “Myself and Tommy are good friends, we played with each other a few years back and we have been speaking quite often on the phone with what we can do to help each other out and I’m sure it will be the same in the future.”

The history shared between the two sides has formed strong bonds and any of the rivalry shared on the pitch dissipates off it. Hill says that their neighbours have been forthcoming with offers of advice and help throughout their comeback.

“I was talking to Jerry Harris (the club secretary) and he was telling me about the history between Cork City and Cobh, there is a lot there and we have been learning from the past and from what happened Cork City a few years ago. They have offered a load of advice and they have offered to help me out in anyway they can and we will both try and accommodate each other.”

In fact, Hill says there is a blueprint there for his team, based on the experiences of City to make sure that they never experience the financial irregularities that saw them demoted at the start of 2009.

“Well we have a blueprint from Cork City from what happened there a few years ago, so it’s a responsibility of the manager to make sure that doesn’t happen again. We will keep a close eye on everything to make sure we don’t repeat what happened in 2009 again.”

 “I’ve had enough disappointment in the past about not getting into the First Division and now finally that it’s arrived, my over-riding emotion has not really come to me just yet, it’s more of a realisation that there is a lot of hard work to do to start again.”