AFTER a two-year break, the Collingwood Cup will return in February with some of the top colleges in Ireland playing it out for one of the oldest trophies in Irish sport.

UCC will begin their campaign at the quarter final stage on February 16th with an away trip to UCD. 

The college last lifted the trophy in 2019, and since 2011 they have lifted the cup on four different occasions.

History means very little to UCC manager Noel Healy, who is just glad to have the intervarsity tournament back.

“We’re delighted that it is back,” he said. 

“Last year, some people came through college and they missed out on the opportunity to play in the Collingwood Cup.

“This year we have been drawn away to UCD, which is the hardest draw we could have got. 

"At the same time, the Collingwood is all about surprises. Our track record has been very good against UCD over the last ten years.” 

UCC will be entering a different edition of the Collingwood Cup this year, which will be played through February and into March.

“The Collingwood structure has changed this year over COVID,” Healy explained. 

“Normally, it is a three day tournament. They’ve decided that the tournament will be held over four to five weeks, going into the middle of March. That is a different structure. 

"It was always three games in three days. That was always the big challenge for fitness and mentality. Now it is once off games.” 

Kick-off on February 16th will mark an end to an uncertain period for the college’s football team.

“It was very challenging,” Healy reflected. 

“At some stage we will look back and wonder how we survived this. The first and second lockdowns were okay. 

"People prepared for them and there was a novelty to them. We did a lot of online stuff with the players. 

"We changed things up as we went along.

“With the players, we were doing strength and conditioning classes online. A ball and speed session plan was sent out to all the players for them to do on their own during the weekends.

”The third lockdown after Christmas was the most challenging one. People got bored and it was mentally very difficult. 

"But, we continued doing things online. It was very interesting then, we started thinking about the best way to deal with things, we looked at social connections with the players. 

"We rang the players to see how they were. We thought we’d be on the phone for a couple of minutes, but we were on for fifteen or twenty minutes.

“Players faced their own challenges. Some guys didn’t like the online stuff. 

"A couple of guys left college in the middle of the first year and they never set foot inside the college grounds, just because of the pandemic. 

"That was sad. They were going through their first semester and they couldn’t celebrate exams. They never got to experience the buzz of being in first year in college.

“When we came back and played competitive football in the Keane Cup, we wanted to get the lads out on the pitch and enjoying themselves. 

"There was never any question about results. We wanted to get the lads back playing and enjoying sport again. 

"We wanted to get fitness levels up and people’s heads in the right place. There’s more important things to us than winning and competing.

“Where we are in the league; am I worried about it? A little bit. I think that the year that they have had has been very challenging. 

"The most important thing is for them to come out the other side of this pandemic. Football will look after itself.” 

The college will be going into this season’s Collingwood Cup in the middle of a difficult season in the Munster Senior League. 

UCC are currently in the bottom half of the Premier Division table, and they were knocked out of the Keane Cup in the group stages.

Healy believes that this will have no impact on the college’s Collingwood Cup campaign.

“I spoke to the players last week about that and we had a good chat,” he explained. 

“When you play against top teams you have a little extra focus. I think that will suit us once we get into Collingwood mode, it’s a different competition completely. 

"It’s a once off cup competition.” 

Healy and his players will be facing a high flying UCD team who were promoted to the League of Ireland Premier Division last winter. 

Their end of season success; which saw the college beat Waterford in the promotion/relegation play-off, was only a snapshot of an impressive year for UCD.

Not only did they finish third in the First Division, they did so by scoring 55 goals, the highest tally in the league. 

The college also beat Shelbourne and Longford Town to reach the quarter finals of the FAI Cup, where Waterford FC narrowly beat them.

Healy is more than ready to take on the Dublin college, as he has done his research ahead of kick-off.

“Tactically you have to get things spot on,” he explained. 

“UCD have mixed up their formation over the last few years. At the start of last season they played three at the back with five attackers and two up top. 

"That is a very attack minded team. I saw them a couple of times last season and they were very good. 

"Towards the end of last season, they played 4-3-3 during the play-offs. That was a different shape. We have no doubt we will get things right to face that.

“Anyone who knows the Collingwood, knows that we have a chance against UCD. 

"We just have to work really hard between now and then because we haven’t been good enough in this season’s Munster Senior League.”