Colm Collins says he won't be pressing his son Podge into declaring for the Clare footballers next season.

A dual operator with the Banner County in 2016, Podge has confirmed that he will only be available to either the Clare footballers or hurlers next year. The footballers would appear to be in pole positiion as they are managed by the 2013 All-Ireland SHC winner's father, Colm. But the latter insists he won't be pulling rank:

"I don't think he's making any decision until we're finished with the club. He knows in his own mind what he wants, just to give him time to make up his mind and we respect whatever decision he makes," he tells The Irish Independent.

"In Clare we'd love to have everybody that we could get but it's the player's own decision and we'll respect that, whatever it is. There'll be no talk around the kitchen table, doing what I tell him - he's gone a bit past that at this stage.

"With the Qualifier system and with games each week you had two occasions this year where Podge had games one day after another. That's very hard to do so it's understandable that he would feel like that.

"Going down the Qualifier route where games are on top of each other, it's impossible. It's very hard to ask anyone to play two days in a row at the top level so it's is a tough one.

"I'd only speak from my own side of things but we'd have no problem with what he gave us on the football side of things. It's just very hard. In the good old days in the golden era of the dual player you'd have a week to recover between games.

"Being asked to play one day after another is hard and you tend to get judged in a different light from other players because you've played another code the day before."

Tweet

Most Read Stories