Captain Collins is a true leader for Borrisoleigh

By Kevin Egan

Even if he didn’t have a number eight jersey on his back, one quick look at Borrisoleigh captain Micheál Collins at around 3.30pm last Friday would make it clear that this wasn’t just a hurler who had just finished playing a huge game, this was a warrior who had just been in the trenches.

Bruises, mud, grass, sweat, all the hallmarks were there, and he sucked in the oxygen and the ambience as he reflected about the rollercoaster of a contest that he had just unfolded.

“Frantic, I never got a breath the whole game,” was how he described it.

“We were up ten points at one point, maybe got a bit of lackadaisical, and they pulled it to back to one at one stage. There was never a moment in that game you could say, Jesus, this is ours. But it's so nice to get a win. The first one ever for the school, it's excellent.”

By now, there were plenty of people on the field congratulating the St. Joseph’s players on their win, though it was nothing like the throngs of crowds that packed the stand for the game. Even if there was no All-Ireland silverware on offer, there was no mistaking that this was a unique occasion, and one where the players and the crowd fed off each other from start to finish.

“The crowd means everything,” the St. Joseph’s captain freely acknowledged.

“We played the semi-final last day, we didn't have a crowd there that day because it was a Saturday, and I thought at times, if we had the crowd, we would have got probably more out of ourselves, so the crowd definitely helps to bring the game to a different level.”

And speaking of levels, it’s a fact of life in schools hurling that until a ball is pucked in championship, there’s no way of knowing what’s possible for any group, given the level of player turnover from one year to the next. With a quite young panel, St. Joseph’s knew they had the hurlers, but it was the Munster semi-final where Collins realised that this was a team capable of doing something truly special.

“It was against [Coláiste an Phiarsaigh] Glanmire where we just clicked. We went out against a good Cork school, and we just blew them out of the water. That's not trying to be cocky or anything, but our boys, each and every one of them, hurled their hearts out and we kept them to ten points that day. It was just unbelievable, the work rate from each and every one of these boys that are on this team and when you do that, anything is possible.

“There are four serious clubs. There are three senior teams and Templederry are a Premier Intermediate team. Everyone here is playing adult hurling with good clubs, so none of us are scared of going into a battle.”

Not just unafraid, but right at home in one. Micheál Collins wears the scars of war very well.