By John Harrington

Clare joint-captain Tony Kelly says Podge Collins’ decision to commit to the county hurling team for the 2017 campaign is ‘a massive plus’.

Dual star Collins campaigned with both the hurlers and footballers this year, but after the season ended said he would focus on just one code in 2017.

With his father Colm being manager of the county football team many thought that’s the option he would choose, but instead he has committed to the hurlers.

“Yeah it's a big plus,” says Kelly. “From talking to him, he just wanted to concentrate on one of them and give his all. It is awful hard combining the two, especially the way it's gone.

“When you're training for football and training for hurling, you're trying to give your all to both. He probably thought that he couldn't give the energy levels or commitment to both.

“It's massive. I know from talking to him he just wanted to concentrate on one and try and have a right good year, especially coming back from the injury he last year, the cruciate.

“To maintain them over a period of time, it is difficult. He's probably coming into that stage of his career, he wants to hit the heights, get the best performance and I think he's trying to do that now by just playing one.

“He's a massive plus to us to have him back. Even to have him back full time around training, the kind of character he is, he's invaluable, just to be there for training and the experience he has.”

Another high-profile dual player, Clare football captain Gary Brennan, is a Ballyea team-mate of Kelly’s and has played a big part in the club reaching Sunday’s AIB Munster SHC Final against Glen Rovers.

A football All-Star nominee this year, Brennan is more renowned for his ability with the big ball, but Kelly believes he could make the grade as an inter-county hurler too were he decide to dedicate himself to that game.

“Gary the athlete he'd be, if he went into it, if he dedicated himself 100%, I think he could turn his hand to anything,” says Kelly.

“He's a very good soccer player as well. He's that kind of an athlete. He's one of them, if he trained for hurling non stop, he'd be a huge plus, he is a very good hurler.

“That's him against Thurles being a part time hurler, only picking it up since the inter county hurling has finished. He doesn't really do that much hurling between December and May until the club starts playing.

“I think if he really focused on it he'd be a big plus to Clare. But I don't think he's any intention of it. He said he's football and he's an outstanding footballer as well. That's the decision he's made.”

There will be a lot of expectation around the Clare senior hurlers in 2017 under new management duo Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor.

The same double-act led Clare to three All-Ireland U-21 titles in a row between 2012 and 2014, but Kelly warns that is no guarantee of success in the senior grade too.

“As much as we’d love them to that’s not the way it works, they are proven at underage but it Is another step up for them and us now again.

“They are going to come with something fresh and something new and it’s going to be a lot of hard work. I suppose are maybe expecting them to come in straight away and win Munster championships or All-Irelands.

“That’s not the way it works, you have to get a bit of luck and it’s going to take an awful lot of hard work. But their record speaks for itself underage, they’ve worked with the majority of the panel if not all the panel at either minor or under-21 or even intermediate as well at some stage.

“They have the experience definitely from that point of view and with Donal Óg staying on and Kelvin (Harold) staying on there’s a bit of continuity there so there isn’t a whole clear-out either. There is a nice blend between continuity and new coming in as well.”

When Clare won the All-Ireland senior hurling title in 2013, the expectation was that Kelly’s gifted generation of young hurlers would continue to accumulate silverware in the following years.

It hasn’t happened for them, though. They did manage to win the Division One League title this year, but their Championship form has been very disappointing.

“I suppose that’s the way it goes,” says Kelly. “A county like Clare; we’ve only won three or four All-Ireland ever so when you win one there’s no guarantee you’ll come back and win it the following year.

“They are so hard to win unless you are from a county like Kilkenny who seem to be throwing them out every year or every second year.

“The biggest disappointment for us wasn’t not winning the All-Ireland the year after or the year after that, it was the Munster championship being the biggest kind of regret or pitfall for us players – getting over that slump and actually seeing a Munster final.

“That was seen to be a stumbling block because even the year we won the All-Ireland we were knocked out of Munster and that’s the main one for us, to try and get that Munster Final.

“I know we probably haven’t performed even in the qualifiers either but I think the Munster championship is the one we have to perform in because the last three or four years we’ve been going out and you leave yourself very little room for error going in the back door if you come across a team as good as yourself or even better.”