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Having been rejected once for being too small, Clare’s Podge Collins made one vow — if he wasn’t going to catch ball above lads’ heads, he wasn’t going to get pushed off it either. The season he doesn’t want to end takes another twist today with Cratloe in a Clare football final.

Podge Collins has few vices in life. He’s into his fourth year in college in Limerick and has still yet to go out on a Tuesday night there. Instead he’s either training or resting. He’s hugely conscious of whatever he eats or drinks. His one guilty pleasure every week is a card game in Cratloe with five or six friends, a game of 110. Usually on a Friday night, when he wants to relax and rest up before a game at the weekend. And he’s also partial to a game of FIFA 2013 with the brothers, or the 2014 version if they happen to be in Cathal McInerney’s house. If he could, he’d always be one team, because of one player. Barcelona, Lionel Messi.

“He’d definitely be my favourite player,” says Collins over a glass of water and a small, prepared lunch between lectures in UL.