Podge Collins still sees Kilkenny as the benchmark

If viewers of Ireland's Fittest Family think Davy Fitzgerald is somehow exaggerating his competitive exuberance for the cameras then fear not the obvious: he's like that all the time, if not even more so.

There’s no fear of him not showing it in Ennis on Sunday either, as All-Ireland champions Clare begin their Allianz Hurling League campaign against title holders Kilkenny. The teams didn’t meet last summer and Sunday’s game in Cusack Park should make up for that.

For Podge Collins – Clare’s All Star forward, who looks 22 going on 16 – it’s also the chance to record a first ever senior win over Kilkenny. But then he’s only met them once, when Kilkenny won out in last year’s league, Collins only making a brief appearance as a blood substitution.

What is certain, says Collins, is Fitzgerald is still pouring out every bit as much enthusiasm as seen on RTÉ on recent Saturday evenings.

“I’d say if Davy put two ducks going down a river, and he had one of them, he’d be going mad,” says Collins. “He’s just a competitive character. It’s just the passion he brings, I suppose, and it shines through on that TV show. Especially when the camera is right on him. It is evident from that how he just wants to win everything he can.

Animated
"Some nights he would be a bit more animated than others, and I'd say he's even more driven than last year. He's very focused on the league, and this Kilkenny game is big for him."

Collins didn’t feature in last weekend’s defeat to Tipperary in the Waterford Crystal Cup, and for good reason: he’s currently juggling hurling and football with Clare, having made a significant impact in Cratloe’s run to last year’s Munster club football final.

With the Clare senior footballers now managed by his father, Colm, he hopes to juggle those commitments for the rest of the season, merely confirming, for now, that it’s “all sorted” between both managers.

He does make an interesting comparison between hurling and football in that there isn’t really one – the physical demands of one code every bit as draining as the other.

“You only have to look at my hands to see there is plenty of physicality in hurling,” he says, showing up his bruised knuckles as evidence. “That provides the entertainment and it’s why people love the game so much. It’s why people say it’s one of the best field games on earth, if not the best. If you take the physicality out of it you’ll take a lot of the entertainment out of it as well.

Physicality
"And in football I think the physicality is much the same. Hurling would be quicker, in that the ball is moving a lot quicker, but the legs would be just as tired after either game. That's really about it, and once you get the recovery after a game and you'd be fine the next day."

Despite Brian Cody’s assertion this week that Kilkenny are no longer a “top four team”, Collins believes they are still number one, still the benchmark, and agrees with his own manager, to some extent, that just surviving in Division 1A this season will be a success in itself.

“Kilkenny this Sunday, and Dublin the Sunday after, we’re really clued in. Especially after getting such a beating off Tipperary. That re-focused us 100 per cent. It’s about getting the heads right for Sunday. We were away as well for the start of January, missing 14 days, and that is a lot to miss.

“So we’re under no illusions. The league is very competitive, and last year we contested a relegation play-off, and Limerick and Dublin contested the Division 1B final. And they were the four teams that made the All-Ireland semi-finals.

“And I think Kilkenny, any day they go out, they bring a certain passion and intensity to a game that’s unlike any county. We definitely have to match it this Sunday.”

Spurred on, naturally, by the exuberance of their manager on the sideline.