Davy Fitzgerald confirms Podge Collins fit for Clare

Davy Fitzgerald has confirmed Podge Collins will be available for Clare for Sunday’s Division 1 final – but has ruled out David McInerney (back) and Conor Ryan (calf), while Shane O’Donnell (foot) is rated as “50-50”.

Fitzgerald also said a player suffered concussion in the win over Kilkenny but would not reveal his identity.

Collins picked up a knock in the footballers’ Division 3 final win over Kildare last Saturday but lined out for Cratloe’s hurlers the following day, scoring 1-2.

Fitzgerald softened his approach to dual players this season after Collins had to pick between the two codes last year. “We know why Podge is back. I’m not going to say exactly why. Ye can speculate and say whatever. Is it working? Podge has played one full game with us; he hasn’t played any full game with the footballers. I don’t think you can say x, y, and z.

“I’m delighted he’s back. I’m absolutely thrilled for Clare football. They work really hard, they’ve serious guys. Us in the Clare hurling camp are so thrilled for them because they are here (in Clare’s Caherlohan training base) working with us every night.

“On the other topic, me and Podge know exactly what the score is on that. We’ve agreed we wouldn’t talk about it. We had a good chat. And it might be different to what ye (journalists) think.”

Ahead of facing Waterford, Fitzgerald admits it’s hard to “hate” the county he was in charge of for three and a half seasons. “I would have a soft spot for them because I was down with them for a number of years. They treated me well. I can’t say anything bad about them because whenever I go down there I get treated with massive respect and I like that. It’s great that you can walk away from a team, part ways and yet you feel good about going down there.

“You can’t hate them anyway, can you? That’s one problem probably but they’re the same with me. For 70 minutes, that goes out the door when you cross that white line. Things could be said but I have a lot of friends down there, friends in their backroom team I’ll shake hands with. It’s a good one, Clare and Waterford in a league final.”

After beating Kilkenny, Fitzgerald cited comments made before the game he believed showed disrespect to Clare. However, he can’t recall who made them. “I can’t, to tell you the truth. I don’t know whether I’m pushing on in age or whether I forget things a bit more. All I’ll say to you is, if you get a chance to use something for motivation, you’re going to use it. Ger Loughnane gave Kilkenny a small bit of motivation in what he said so naturally we’re going to try and find motivation.

“Any team worth their salt will look for something and you’ll try to cling onto it and convince yourself of it, however true it is or whatever the story is, you’re going to use it. You need that bit of something. I can’t really remember who said it but it might have been handy for us at the time.”