Pierce Phillips on Cobh Ramblers' aims for the 2024 season with a week to go

THE success of last season was unforgettable for Cobh Ramblers, but now the club are faced with the task of doing it all again in 2024. New manager Gary Hunt has brought a different approach to the game, something midfielder Pierce Phillips and the rest of the squad have enjoyed so far.

“It's good, he likes to play football,” Pierce begins. “He's going to try and implement that with us this season. That's something we're all looking forward to and we’re raring to go.

There's been good continuity from last year with some of the same background staff, so he's fit in nice and easy.

“I suppose just over the past few weeks in preseason, the first thing is just getting to know all the players and leaving us gel together. Then it's just obviously trying to implement his style of play and get that point across to us.

“So, it's just about the building blocks throughout preseason, just to ensure that we can implement what he wants for the first game against Treaty, which is fast approaching now.” 

With pre-season nearing its end and Cobh’s season opener against Treaty a little over a week away Phillips shares his thoughts on their preparations.

“Results wise anyway it is going well. Beating UCC 5-0, beating Shamrock Rovers, but at the end of the day, we just know it’s just to get minutes into the legs and get used to each other. [There’s a] lot of new signings coming in, so I suppose overall it's going well.

“Something that we spoke about as a group recently enough, is targets for the season, individual targets, things like that,” he says. “The main target is just minimum playoffs. If we can replicate and build on what we did last year, maybe go one better if possible – but it's just about making the playoffs, that's the target.” 

One thing that is always key in the League of Ireland is a fast start. If you can build up results and momentum you’re setting yourself up for a good season, and that’s exactly what the Rams did in 2023.

“It is massive. Obviously, there’s a long season there, so there's plenty of time to rectify things if they do go wrong, but I think last year one of the biggest things for us was the quick start,” Phillips says. “We went a good few games unbeaten and we put out good performances right from the start.

“It feels similar in some ways to last season. We had a good preseason, and there's a good buzz around the place, so it's just about trying to implement that into the start of the season.” 

Looking ahead to their trip to Treaty, Pierce remarks; “I think especially last year, [they have] a similar style of play to us, they’re always a good side. We're expecting every game is going to be tough, but we're expecting a tough challenge up there.

“We went up there last year and we got a good win against them so we're hoping for the same, but it's just about being as ready as we can be for it.” 

With both Waterford and Galway earning promotion, UCD and Cork City faced the drop which shuffles the 2024 pack and makes it even more difficult to pick out the promotion challengers. Will it be easier for the Rams to fight for the top three in 2024?

“That’s the view that a lot of people seem to have, is that the league might be a bit more open this year with the likes of Galway and Waterford going up.

“But to be honest with you, it's really hard to tell. I’m going into my sixth year in the league, and some of the teams you think are going to be down the bottom, could be up third and fourth. I imagine that was the case for us last year. Nobody would thought we would have finished third.

“Then you’ve teams that you might think should be in the top three and they finish seventh or eighth, so I genuinely don't know. 5-6 weeks in you can kind of gauge where teams are at, but as of now, I don’t know.

“Obviously, a lot of lads did leave, but for some of them, we knew it was coming anyway. Mikie Rowe, Wilson [Waweru], they were both on loan.

“Dean Larkin has come back in, so I think we, we have the core of the group there, and a lot of the time it gives other lads the chance to step up and I think in preseason that's been shown as well. We're more excited for the season and we have that core there, so it's just about building on that again.”