Twice last year, Podge Collins played two inter-county championship games in the one weekend.
Clare beat Laois in the football qualifiers earlier in the summer and they did it the very next day the Banner county had come through a battle in the hurling with Limerick.
Two weeks later, Collins was out on Saturday and Sunday again. He went to Galway to play Roscommon with his dad’s team before turning around and making it to Tipperary the following day for an All-Ireland hurling quarter-final.
It meant that the Cratloe man had five inter-county games in the space of three weeks and it’s not like we’re talking about pre-season, dust-off-the-cobweb type affairs – this was the height of the summer with every kick of the ball crucial, every slap of a hurl interrogated, and every result potentially historic.
Now it seems that he’ll only get to play the hurling next year.
But it’s not like any of them mean any more or less to him. Podge Collins goes through the full spectrum of human emotion whether he has an O’Neill’s size five in his hands or a helmet on his head. He’s a hurler and a footballer, sure. But at the centre of it all, he’s just a Clare man.
And you could see it on his face, in his passion, you could see how much his county meant to him all through 2016 – all the highs and lows, how he took each of them.
According to Clare FM though, the talented dual star will prioritise just one code next season and give his commitment to the hurlers.
The Banner are under new leadership in Donal Maloney and Gerry O’Connor and are set to receive Podge Collins’ full attention.
“Podge Collins has confirmed he will focus on intercounty hurling for 2017,” Clare FM report.
“The 2013 All Star had previously told Clare FM that he would not continue his dual mandate, but wished to wait until Cratloe’s championship run had ended before deciding which code to choose.”
It means that, despite helping the county to a Division Three football league title last spring, Collins will not be involved for Clare’s Division Two voyage as they aim to follow up on a historic campaign that took them the whole way to the All-Ireland quarter-finals at Croke Park.
Podge Collins: A footballer, a hurler, a Clare man https://t.co/w3IuTECzfl #GAA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 19, 2016
Podge Collins is still a footballer and a hurler and he’s still a Clare man to the very core. Unfortunately, we now live in a time where representing your county in every way you can is no longer possible.
Collins’ seasons never have any end or beginning anymore and he’s playing at an elite level that requires total commitment, time, and attention. Managers are less and less inclined to let their players miss a session or risk their physical condition playing for another team.
Podge Collins was constantly bucking that trend but, eventually, something had to give.
The problem isn’t with him or with Clare or his managers. It’s with the GAA. It’s no longer possible to be a dual player at the top – if anyone proves that, a mad, hungry, enthusiastic talent like Podge Collins does. His loss to any code is a crying shame.
Clare legend Tony Kelly joins Colm Parkinson on The GAA Hour. Subscribe here on iTunes or listen on Soundcloud (if you want to).
