​By John Harrington

Podge Collins has no definite plans about how long he intends to play both hurling and football at inter-county level.

The dual-star was not part of the Clare hurling panel last year because Davy Fitzgerald decided all of his players must commit to hurling only. Collins’ season with the Clare footballers subsequently ended prematurely when he tore a cruciate knee ligament last May.

But since recovering from the injury he has played for both the county footballers and hurlers after Fitzgerald decided to accommodate him again. Collins insists he understands why Fitzgerald took the stance he did last year, but doesn’t know how long he’ll be able to combine both sports at the highest level.

“I don’t think you can plan anything, I’ll take it game by game and see how it goes,” he said. “I think the point of the hurling management is a very valid one and because of the commitment in the GAA at the moment you nearly want to focus your time on one panel.

“It nearly is a full time job. That’s not saying a bad thing about it I love playing it and wouldn’t change a thing about it but you can see where they are coming from but like I said I’ll play it by ear and see how it goes and take it from there next year. When everything is going well no one in Clare will be giving out and none of the supporters will have a problem with it.

“We won both leagues and when you are winning everything is right and everything is happy and when you are losing that’s when people will get on to you and that’s when it is a problem. You don’t know what will happen in the championship, for now it’s all happy and we’ll see how we get on this year and take it from there. I won’t be looking past the Limerick game and then the Waterford game.”

Collins has not yet this year been forced to pick one team ahead of the other because he was still sidelined with injury when the hurlers and footballers were in action on the same weekend in the League.

“Yeah, some of the weekends clash and it would make it very awkward,” he said. “I wasn't available for them so I didn't have the headache. Going forward it probably would be, yeah. I'm not going to say it's a great success this year or anything. I'm only back six or seven weeks and I'm fortunate that our League campaign went very well. Some lads from our football team had unbelievable League campaigns and I only came in at the end and came on as a sub.

“It's not like I did a whole pile. It's the same in the hurling. The lads got us promoted, great League campaign and a puck of the ball in it again against Waterford and the same against Kildare, one point. Even if we lost both of those games by a point it would be more of a negative on the whole thing. I'm just taking it game by game, seeing how the game goes and take it from there.”

Collins is one of the very last of a dying breed when it comes to playing both senior inter-county hurling and football. He understands why so few are now capable of making the commitment in the senior grade, but is dismayed that underage players are now being commonly told to play one or the other.

“What I’d love if it was made possible especially for younger lads,” he said. “They way it is gone at senior level it can be very hard to do both but I’d love see players accommodated to do both at minor. Some people prefer hurling and some prefer football and you will always have divides in counties and some clubs just do football and some do hurling but they are all our native sports under one organisation and I feel it should be encouraged at minor level. If you are good at hurling and football you want to play both.

“Even like with Tipperary when they got to both All-Ireland [minor/> finals and lost. You had the hurling people in Tipp saying, 'If they weren't in the football, they probably would have won the hurling'. The same the other way around. But what had they to produce to prove themselves? They got to both All-Ireland finals like. I think any minor team in the country would be delighted to get to an All-Ireland final and they came up that bit short so if they won the double would everyone be saying it's possible. It's small margins.”

Collins made his return to the Clare hurling team in their very convincing victory over Kilkenny in the Allianz Hurling League Final. It was as if he had never been away as the buzzed around the field with great effect, showed some really classy touches, and scored a fine point. For a man playing his first inter-county game after a long lay-off, his first-touch was remarkably sharp.

“One thing I kept up when I was in rehab was that I did a lot of stuff in the alley and made my rehab skill focused,” explained Collins. “When you are doing one legged hops and you’d try do it in the alley with a ball in your hand because that is what is important when you are on the field.

“I spend a lot of my time rehabbing with a hurley in my hand so it's not like I put the hurley down for nine months and picked it up again. People would be nearly forgiving of you when you're coming back from a long injury. If I make a few mistakes in the game they'd be like, 'He's just back from injury' whereas a month or two down the line I won't be as forgiven for them.”

Collins never doubted he would be able to make a full recovery from his knee injury, but that did not make the long rehab process any easier. The Cratloe man is such a ball of energy that sitting on the sidelines watching others play was his idea of hell.

“I knew there was a rehab program put in place and once the nine months had elapsed I knew I’d be ok because the physio was very happy after three months and four months it was all positive so I was looking forward to getting back on the field,” he said.

“A lot of players go through it. A lot of people are doing their ACL. You hear it all the time in clubs. It's actually the amount of people are doing it at the moment. It's nine months, it's a killer. When you pick up a hand injury or a knock or a hamstring injury you know that in three weeks I can get back. You've a goal straight in front of you. But with a nine-month injury it is a long way back. I've a lot of admiration for Colm O'Neill who has come back from it three times, I'll tell you that.”

That’s one of the reasons why playing both codes at the highest level doesn’t feel like a chore for Collins – after his long lay-off he’s delighted to have the chance to play as many matches as possible. Next up for him is Clare’s Munster SFC quarter-final against Limerick on May 29 in the Gaelic Grounds.

On the respective form we saw from both teams in Division Three of the Allianz Football League this year, it’s a game that Clare should win. There’s a lot of confidence in their camp after their Division Three Final victory over Kildare, and even though Collins is not looking beyond the challenge of Limerick he sees no reason why Clare should not believe they are good enough to push Cork and Kerry hard in Munster this year.

“Like, we played Kerry the year they won the All-Ireland, 2014, we played them in the park and we lost by two points that day,” he said. “Now they were missing James O'Donoghue and Colm Cooper who aren't too bad as footballers but we played them that day, a home game for us, they were missing a few big names, but any day we go out, listen, we'll never be like 'oh we're going to lose this game'.

“We'll always have motivation. We'll always have drive. In our own heads we will feel we have a chance. I don't think the rest of the country will give us a chance. Like I said, Limerick is the main focus in two weeks' time and I've no doubt that's going to be a very tough game inside in the Gaelic Grounds, probably a point or two in it either way.”

His assessment of the Munster Senior Hurling Semi-Final he’ll play against Waterford goes along similar lines and it’s hard to argue with him after both sides were only separated by a razor-thin margin after the drawn and replayed Allianz League Hurling Finals.

“Like, I suppose any time you see a team play you're supposed to learn a bit more about them,” said Collins. “The first game was a savagely intense game. The second game the same, not a puck of a ball in it. I don't think there is much between the sides. Championship will be no different. I honestly think there'll be a point either way again and I think it'll be another enjoyable spectacle in Thurles. Munster Championship, I don't think there's anything that really beats it. There'll be a serious buzz there that day and I'm looking forward to the game.”

Podge Collins, Henry Shefflin, Seamus Hickey, and Austin Gleeson were at Centra’s Live Well hurling launch in CLG Na Fianna which included the announcement that the retailer will continue its sponsorship of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship up to 2019. As part of this year’s campaign Centra has introduced a series of #GetActive hurling challenges to encourage fans of all ages to pick up a hurl, test their skills and upload their videos to win big prizes. For more information on how to take part go to www.centra.ie or follow Centra Ireland on social media.***