Collins back on the big stage

Mark Collins got his first taste of a senior football county final day at Páirc Uí Chaoimh aged four, when he held captain Niall Cahalane’s hand as team mascot before his heroes took the field against O’Donovan Rossa in 1994 in front of 25,000 people.

A book has since been penned about that year in the club’s history and on its cover, bang in the middle, is a picture of Collins with a startled look upon his face, marching behind St Fachtna’s Silver band, a blue and white football under his arm.

“That was some introduction to it, alright,” he laughed. “I was a little more pudgy back then than I am now! I was just so taken aback by the whole thing, to be honest. I was only four at the time and I just remember there being a photo shoot or something down in Castlehaven the week before the match and it was just hitting me how huge the occasion was.”