
The Rodfather
Shane MurphyTen years ago today, on the 12th of May 2015, one of the biggest voices in Irish football came to the RSC with Roddy Collins being announced as the new manager of Waterford United. It was an all-or-bust move that, unfortunately, came up bust.
Roddy is the greatest example of the ‘Marmite’ concept – people either love him or hate him. There’s also a common conviction that he is entertaining to have in the league, but just not at your club. His time in Waterford was no different. Some of his players have been absolutely scathing in their criticism of him. Others found him great to deal with and the respect and warmth he showed when his ex-captain, Roy Butler, passed was a great comfort to family and friends.
The charismatic Cabraman was given a two-and-a-half-year contract with previous manager Tommy Griffin moving to a new role as Head of Football Operations. The former Bohemians, Carlisle United and Floriana manager proclaimed that “Everyone in Ireland knows that Waterford United is a sleeping giant of a club. They have been out of the top division for too long.” He said with great enthusiasm that it was his “dream job” and promised he was signing “a top, top striker who hasn’t played in the First Division before”, but that never materialised.
The Blues got the new manager bounce immediately with a 3-1 home win over Cabinteely in a bottom-of-the-table clash. 585 fans turned out to welcome Roddy and see a brace from Willie John Kiely as well as a goal from Shane Dineen secure the team’s second win of the season.
Sadly, the next ten games were winless with eight defeats and two draws. Collins said he spent the first six weeks commuting between London and Waterford because of how busy he was with his plastering business. He said he was working in London on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and returning to Waterford on Thursdays and that he was shattered.
By the end of the season, United were seventh of the eight teams in the First Division, a point ahead of Cabinteely, twenty-eight off the playoff places and a full forty behind champions Wexford Youths. Nevertheless, Roddy insisted the Blues would be going full-tilt for promotion the following year and that he believed “100% that we will be competing at the top end of the Premier League in three years.” The most loquacious character in the league, Collins, who later managed Athlone Town for a second time, wrote in the Daily Star that “this is my last job in Irish football and I’ve never been as excited about a challenge.”
Preseason didn’t augur well for 2016 with a 7-0 loss to Cork City at the RSC followed by an 8-1 defeat to Dundalk in Oriel Park. Collins was punished harshly in March for a newspaper column in which he derided the FAI and described the league as “a shambles”. He was fined €1500 and given a six-match touchline ban so the new season was off to an ominous beginning.
April was a particularly rough month with three home defeats, a 7-2 loss in Limerick and an EA Sports Cup exit against Cork City. That game in Turner’s Cross was going surprisingly well with the sides scoreless until Collins made sweeping changes at half-time. Cork went on to win 7-0 again.
Chairman John O’Sullivan stepped down that month and the club put out a desperate plea to raise €80,000 to see out the season. Only a fraction of that was gathered and respected reporter Matt Keane wrote that “football died in Waterford” and the club would “no longer be trading next week.” Things were never so bleak for the Blues.
The season rumbled on with players coming and going at such a rate that the few remaining fans had no idea who was still at the club from week to week. There was a lot of hype around Roddy securing the services of ‘Bocker’ Bayly, for instance, but he disappeared after two games in July.
As August progressed, the feeling that we were witnessing the final days of the Blues grew day by day. Four consecutive home fixtures drew a COMBINED attendance of 792. The lowest was the paltry 167 that saw a 3-1 win against Athlone Town. Attendances for the fourteen league games at the RSC that season totalled just 4,443.
Could it get any worse? Yes, it could. Waterford lost 8-1 at home to mid-table UCD on the last day of September in front of 247 tortured souls. It was to be Roddy’s last day too having equalled what was at the time the club’s all-time record defeat. “What do people expect?”, a dejected Collins asked after his team of teenagers were beaten. He was sacked the following Tuesday and the youngsters won their remaining two games under caretaker boss Derek Browne to move up to a final fifth position in the table. Collins later took a legal case against the club for unfair dismissal.
Roddy’s record at the Blues tallied out as twelve wins, six draws and twenty-six defeats from forty-four league games. How much of it was his fault and could anyone else have done better is certainly a matter for debate. He was loved by some and despised with real vitriol by others. Ten years later, he remains one of the biggest characters in the league, albeit as a pundit now, and wrote one of the funniest autobiographies you will ever read.
A decade is an awfully long time for the Blues and the club has come a long way from its lowest ebb. Ownership transferred from John O’Sullivan to Lee Power, to Jack Power, then Richard Forrest, and on to Andy Pilley, and now Jamie Pilley. The club’s name changed from Waterford United back to Waterford FC, promotion was achieved in 2017, then European qualification and disqualification, relegation in ’21 and promotion again in ’23.
The Rod Squad coincided with the worst period in the club’s history, but the reasons were many and widespread. Ten years on, there is another new manager, but the Blues are in a much healthier state and with that ‘sleeping giant’ beginning to stir again.