A JUBILANT CRATLOE football boss Colm Collins has hailed the players that have delivered a historic county double for the club and insists they are so talented that ‘Shep The Dog’ would win a county title with them.
Cratloe ran out seven-point winners over Éire Óg in yesterday’s Clare senior football decider as they followed up their Clare senior hurling final win over Crusheen the previous Sunday.
It’s all part of a golden era of success for the East Clare club, that only won their first SHC title in 2009 and first SFC crown last year. Colm’s own sons Podge and Sean are amongst their inter-county stars along with the likes of Conor McGrath, Cathal McInerney, Liam Markham and Conor Ryan.
“They’re excellent players, they’re a pleasure to deal with,” Collins told Clare FM reporter Syl O’Connor after yesterday’s game.
“Shep The Dog would win a championship with them lads, I’m telling you, they’re that good. There’s mutual respect between both codes. There’s never an issue. A lot of credit is due to the people that are the bedrock of the club.
“We train for hurling one week, we train for football the next week and that’s it. There’s no problem, there’s no issue, there’s no bickering and long may it continue. It works for us and we’re delighted.
“You go out against Crusheen (last Sunday), we won and it was fantastic. Then there was a bit of an anti-climax because the lads came back and they didn’t celebrate too hot and they watched themselves. We were back training Tuesday night and everything has gone smooth since, thank God.”
Cratloe’s attention now turns to the AIB Munster senior club championship campaign as they plot assaults on both football and hurling in the coming weeks.
“Our first round is the Waterford (hurling) champions on the 26th, so we won’t be looking any further than that,” says Collins. “On the other side (football), I think we’ve got a bye in the first round so we’re straight into a semi-final.
“All we’ll worry about for the moment is Ballygunner and that’s it. We might have a few days now where we let down our hair, the bit that’s left. On a club front , it doesn’t get any better than this.”