Podge Collins and Cratloe showing no sign of slowing up just yet

Such has been their irrepressible run through Clare and now through Munster in both football and hurling that some people are already wondering what will happen if Cratloe go all the way to Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day.

That is a long way off yet, obviously, although having already collected county titles in football and hurling, Cratloe remain on course for a potential provincial double.

Last Sunday, they booked their place in the hurling final, beating Thurles Sarsfields; this Sunday they can book their place in the football final, if they can overcome Waterford champions The Nire.

The Munster football and hurling finals are played on separate dates, as are the All-Ireland semi-finals, although were Cratloe to keep on winning, they could find themselves playing two finals on Croke Park on March 17th.

Given they’re almost all dual players they would mean the GAA having to split those final dates for the first time since they’ve played them in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day.

The difference

Again, a long way off yet, although it has happened before: in 1980, Cork’s most famous dual club, St Finbarr’s, won the first and still only Munster club double, then went on to make the All-Ireland finals in both football and hurling – winning the football, although losing the hurling. The difference then, however, is that the finals were played separately, the hurling final in Thurles on May 17th, and the football a fortnight later in Croke Park.

Not surprisingly Cratloe are not looking anywhere near that far ahead, although star forward Podge Collins has spoken about his methods behind the madness of switching between football and hurling and back again. Part of the trick, he says, is to never leave the football or the hurl out of your hands.

“That’s it, every time you go down to the ball alley you’ve got to bring the big ball and the small ball,” says Collins, “and give them 20 minutes each, to keep sharp. That’s how it is, but we just love it. We love both games here in Cratloe, and want to keep it going as long as possible.

“As long as you’re winning that’s easy. You don’t feel at all tired when you’re winning. If you were losing, you’d feel the belts a lot more. As soon as we lose, people will be saying you can’t do both, you’re too tired, or it’s too hard.

“But we’re just loving it at the minute, loving playing all the matches. It’s just about recovery, too, stretching and trying to say loose. You’re trying to stay as fresh as you can, eating as well as you can. It’s difficult enough with matches coming every week.

“But it’s what you dream of. At the start of the year it was sort of unspoken, but we really wanted to do the double in Clare. That was in our minds. We saw Loughmore do it the year before, in Tipp and it was kind of a dream for us. Now, we’re just going week by week.”