Clare’s Podge Collins insists that he hasn’t yet made a decision on whether he will play hurling, football or both for the Banner County next year.
Podge won an All-Ireland win Clare in 2013, concentrated solely on football in 2015 and this year tried to combine both sports.
It was reported that he had decided that the could only pick one for 2017 and that’s what he was going to spend the next few weeks finalising.
But speaking to RTÉ Sport at the GAA Championship 2017 draws on Thursday night he said he still has a lot of thinking to do.
“I said that in an interview on Clare FM and it was almost a slip of the tongue,” he admitted.
“This year was very difficult because some of the weekends clashed and I haven’t played as well as I would like in either so I was thinking to myself, ‘maybe I should just concentrate on one and give it a right go’.
“But I haven’t made a decision on that; Cratloe are still going, we have a county football final replay on Sunday week, and that’s my priority at the moment. That’s my only focus and outside of that I’m not thinking of anything else. There has been no decisions made yet.”
Collins’ father Colm is Clare football manager and Podge is talented in both codes.
Just a few weeks ago Davy Fitzgerald stepped down as Banner County manager and moved quickly into the Wexford hot seat.
Collins wishes him well in his new job, saying that he knew Fitzgerald wouldn’t be able to stay out of management for two long.
“That man was never going to leave the inter-county scene - it’s what he loves and he’s been so successful at it,” he explained.
“He came into Clare and won an All-Ireland in his second year, he won a Munster in Waterford, he won a National League with us this year, he’s won with Limerick IT so he’s had great success.
“I have no doubt that Wexford are going to have success over the next few years. I was chatting to people there through work and they’re very much looking forward to it.
[Davy Fitzgerald] was never going to leave the inter-county scene - it’s what he loves
“He’s a pure hurling man and the passion he brings to that Wexford team will be interesting to see.”
If Collins does hurl for Clare next year he’ll be playing for the new joint-management team of Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor.
He knows the pair well having played a combined four years for them at underage, winning a Munster minor title and two All-Ireland Under-21s.
Given their knowledge of the young panel from their underage days Collins is tipping them to do well - with or without him.
“They’ll know they players very well. You see them at every game so they’ll have a good knowledge of the players in the county,” he said.
