Podge Collins: A footballer, a hurler, a Clare man

If you cut Podge Collins open, he'd bleed yellow and blue.

The man has Clare coursing through his veins. He has GAA lining his core. He has a hurl for a backbone. Football in the brain. This weekend is set to be a manic couple of days in the life of a Clare Gael. The Banner will fly high in Salthill and Thurles and the county's proud support will face a logistics dilemma to turn out and roar their heroes to glory. For Podge Collins, it's just another weekend. It's just what he does. On Saturday at 3pm, the Cratloe man heads to Galway with the footballers to take on Roscommon for a place in the All-Ireland football quarter-final. On Sunday at 4pm, the hurlers will contest their last-eight clash with Galway in Tipperary. Collins will be in attendance at both like he was the weekend before last when he played 70 minutes for the hurlers and 22 minutes for the footballers the next day. This weekend though, Colm Collins will have first pick of the player over Davy Fitzgerald, just because of how the fixtures have fallen.

"It’s the same thing again as a couple of weekends ago, two games over two days," Collins said in the Examiner. "He’s available to us on the Saturday and please God then to the hurlers on Sunday. No more than any other player, he’s sitting there and he’s available for selection by us, the same as everyone else."

It's rare now to find a man like Collins. Too often, dual players are being forced to decide between football and hurling, one or the other. A lot of people make the choice themselves. Playing for your county is tough enough without representing two teams at that level and taking on the demands of both. Podge Collins seems to enjoy it. Even at 24, he's still like a kid at school, running around wildly from team to team, sport to sport just because he can't or won't stop. He plays with that same freedom and restlessness. He just wants a ball in hands, he just wants to take men on, he just wants to represent Clare. And then do it again. It doesn't matter if he's training every night of the week. It doesn't matter if he's playing two games back-to-back. Running freely on an open pitch is Collins' reward. Even when he was injured last year, he was barely halted. He was still patrolling the sidelines, shouting at team mates, throwing out water and collecting footballs. A lot of it is because of his love of the game, his love of the Banner. A lot of it is because he knows nothing else. So when it comes to the weekend and Collins is yet again scaling the island, dividing his time and putting his body through the ringer for his county, don't feel sorry for him. Admire him. Envy him. Cherish him. Because a man like this is a dying breed. A beautiful breed. And however sore or tired or restricted he might feel in an All-Ireland hurling quarter-final on Sunday, he wouldn't have it any other way. This is what he loves. GAA is what he loves. Clare is what he loves. How could he choose? Listen to our new GAA podcast with Colm Parkinson. Click here to subscribe on iTunes. https://soundcloud.com/user-787320910/the-gaa-hour-with-colm-parkinson-tyrone-and-galway-are-back-but-these-dubs-are-not-going-away