Athletics: Max Jones is adopting a realistic but cautious approach as he undertakes his first major meeting as Ireland's director of athletics at the European Cup in Vaasa.
Jones, who retired in 2005 after a highly successful career as a coach and then UK Athletics performance director, was appointed to his post in April.
Since then he has set about his task vigorously by formulating a programme which in the short term is aimed at preparing Irish athletes for next year's Beijing Olympics.
He has also been charged with developing a strategy that extends beyond the 2012 London Games - and his first real test comes at this weekend's European Cup First League 'A' match in Finland.
"After being involved for 25 years at the sharp end with Great Britain you do miss it," said Jones.
"When you do an event like this, you can smell the grease paint. That's why it's such a great competition. Every contest is important and you can lose it by a simple mistake in any one of them.
"It swings both ways. It can swing from complete disaster to a complete victory. It really is a superb meeting.
"The men came up last year by just a whisker and it's going to be very difficult for them to stick here and equally as tough for the women.
"We'll do very well if we stay up this time, so it's fingers crossed time.
"Yes, we've got athletes who can produce the good performances. There's some world-class athletes in Ireland but to win the European Cup, you need all-round strength in every event - and we've got too many one or two pointers.
"Being a small country you also suffer when getting two or three injuries or non-availability of athletes and you're really in trouble."
But Jones, pointing to European indoor 400 metres champion David Gillick and world 60m hurdles gold medallist Derval O'Rourke, insists Ireland can produce a positive showing in the annual eight-nation team event.
Jones said: "We're strong on the track, we're weak in the field and we've got too many holes to stay up easily. You've got the excitement of trying to stay up one year and then trying to go up the next year.
"It's like a double-edged sword - always interesting. It's not a boring situation to be in, but I think long term we want to build genuine First Division sides and on the odd occasions, get into the Premiership.
Jones, identifying a key weakness, added: "But we've got to get a long-term strategy and get some field eventers. I'm not sure if I'm going to be around then, but I want to set up a structure that builds towards the 2012 London Olympics.
"There are 20 national category athletes all doing their own thing and none of them get what I call full support. What we've got to put in there is what we did in Britain in 1996.
"We've got to get good medical support, good sports science support and those sort of things, hold training groups rather than just doing everything individually.
"We're like Britain was seven to eight years ago. Now we've got Sports Council backing, they're going to set up a new sports institute along the lines of high-performance centres so there is a future." PA