Colm Collins: The media won't be first to know if I'm gone

Clare manager Colm Collins was fulsome in his praise for Derry in the wake of their demolition of his side in Saturday's All-Ireland quarter-final.

And the longest serving manager in the inter-county game passed up the chance to tell the assembled reporters whether he was calling it a day.

"First of all, full credit to Derry, a clinical display, fantastic finishing, especially in the area of goals. A fantastic display all around the pitch," Collins told reporters afterwards.

"To match that, things needed to go really right for us and I don't think they did. I don't think we played particularly well in a lot of aspects of our game. And we were punished.

"It was a bit of a mountain alright. Conceding those early goals is exactly what you don't do. And anytime we made a break to get back at them, they answered immediately with a goal.

"That goal before half-time was a killer, we had got it down to six at that point. Listen, you can go on and on and on about Clare but you've got to give credit to Derry. It was a fine display and (Rory Gallagher) has a fine team.

"One of the things about being in the same division as Derry, you're aware of their personnel and what they can do. There was no surprises. That's as clinical as they've ever been in front of goal, though (laughs)."

While Collins was minded to shift the conversation towards Derry's quality rather than his own team's failings, the Clare boss did rue the opening half bout of shooting yips and, in particular, the mistake which led to the first goal, when goalkeeper Tristan O'Callaghan dinked his kickout down the throat of Ethan Doherty.

"If you took only an U12 team you had and you took them out and they didn't perform, you'd be cheesed (off) afterwards. But you're as good as