Collins looking forward to battle as Banner braced for a Catfight

Allianz Hurling Div 1A

What a game. The reigning league champions meeting the reigning All-Ireland champions. Kilkenny v Clare in Ennis.

If that’s not enough to whet the appetite, I don’t know what is. The players are certainly looking forward to it, according to flying Clare forward Podge Collins.

“Kilkenny this Sunday and Dublin the Sunday after... we’re really clued in,” he said.

“Especially after getting such a beating off Tipperary [Waterford Crystal final last Sunday]. That has refocused us 100%.

“It’s about getting the heads right for Sunday. We haven’t beaten Kilkenny yet at senior level in an important game in recent years. This is a huge game for us, playing against the best team of the last few years, lads with eight and nine All-Ireland medals, all those All Stars. It’s massive for us.”

Clare of course are the new benchmark with young stars, an all-action style built around pace and precision rather than the physical power game of Kilkenny. But while Podge and his comrades made that breakthrough just last year, he reckons Kilkenny are still the standard bearers.

“We really envy them. All those All-Ireland titles. You have to look up to them, respect them. They’re the ones who set the benchmark. We’re trying to get to there now.”

It won’t be Podge’s first league game of the year, of course. With his father, Colm, manager of the Clare footballers, Podge and his brother Sean have opted for a dual role and both figured in a couple of football games. For this week and next, however, his total focus is on the small ball.

It has to be too because with only six teams in Division 1A, there will again be little room for error this season. Having opted to take their team break at the start of the new year, Clare are playing catch-up in the training stakes.

“We missed 14 days and that’s a lot to miss, getting a game or two under our belts. The league is very competitive. Last year we contested the 1A relegation play-off, Limerick and Dublin contested the 1B final, and they were the four teams that made the All-Ireland semi-finals.”

Significantly though Kilkenny weren’t one of those teams, leaving manager Brian Cody to claim they are no longer top four.

That doesn’t wash with ! Collins.

“They’d still be my number one. Henry Shefflin, nine All-Irelands... they are still the benchmark.”

What of Clare themselves though? An All-Ireland title already under their belts, the youngest starting 15 to win a final in either hurling or football, an average age of just over 22. Surely they’re only going to get better?

“Last year, if the championship was a straight knockout we were gone on day one. We drew with Wexford in the qualifiers, could have lost the first day to Cork in the All-Ireland final. A lot of luck came with last year. We are delighted we won the All-Ireland but we have to forget it now, 2013 is over.”

It is and Clare are now the new target, with Kilkenny firing the first shots in this year’s league.

“Yeah, we did win the All-Ireland and that’s added pressure. I think Kilkenny, any day they go out they bring a certain passion and intensity to a game that’s unlike any other county.

“We have to match it this Sunday. I think it will be similar to last year, a championship mentality, really, that every game you go out in you have to win, 100% full throttle.”

Podge on...

... cards controversy

“Obviously there’s rules, there has to be cards. You couldn’t just not have cards, there’d be a free-for-all. That just wouldn’t make sense at all. I suppose the one thing I’d say is if an incident is iffy, or like the Hawk-Eye thing last year [Limerick minors denied a point in All-Ireland semi-final loss], just have someone upstairs that could quickly look over that once or twice, just to confirm. Don’t be holding up the game for two or three minutes. A quick thing like they have in rugby and just have a look. I can’t imagine it’d be too hard to set up.”

... physicality

“You only have to look at my hands to see there is plenty of physicality in the game. You don’t want to take that out of it. 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.”