“At the start of the season we give the lion’s share over to hurling. “Any physical or gym stuff is done together. “The way we work it is that basically if we have a football game at the weekend then we train only football that week then the following week it’s hurling,” explains Collins, who has remained Cratloe’s football manager through all his nine years as the county manager. They have a formula that has ensured that for more than a decade no group of players in the county and very few in the country have had more big days and extensive campaigns in Champo. In Cratloe the two codes don’t merely have a truce. The rest of the fellas were hurling under Earley on Thursday. The five or six lads who only play football had a bit of a kickaround and workout on Wednesday night alright for about an hour but that was it. And even they took the session off on Tuesday, Collins’ counterpart on the hurling, Conor Earley, being as mindful of the needs, desires and demands of his players. So, ever since his footballers beat Lissycasey last Saturday afternoon, almost all of them have gone into hurling mode for the week.