Joe Canning: 2013 defeat to Dublin still fresh
Dublin a threat for Canning as Galway plot next mauling
THIS Sunday’s Leinster quarter-final in O’Connor Park seems like a foregone conclusion.
Galway and Dublin appear to be heading in opposite directions. While Micheál Donoghue’s powerful side have Liam MacCarthy in their crosshairs, Mark Schutte’s surprise defection to the footballers indicates that there are deep problems within Ger Cunningham’s squad.
Joe Canning will begin his 10th Championship campaign in Tullamore so he has been part of plenty of Galway teams that have lost games that they were supposed to win. When they are lumbered with the favourites tag, nobody makes fools of oddsmakers more than the Tribesmen.
‘I would always be wary of Dublin,’ says the talismanic forward, who has only been on the winning side once against the Dubs in four Championship meetings.
‘No matter who you are playing, you are always worried. I think that comes with being a sportsperson, you can never go into any game, 100 per cent sure that “this is what is going to happen.”
‘That’s the beauty of sport. Nobody is sure what will happen on any given day.’
While their last Championship clash is seared into the memory of Dublin hurling supporters — Canning scored two of Galway’s five goals on a breezy June afternoon in Tullamore two years ago — the forward is quick to point out that in the drawn encounter at Croke Park six days earlier, Dublin were the dominant side.
‘Down through the years, there hasn’t been much between us. When we played in Croke Park back in 2015, Dublin should have beaten us well that day, without a doubt.
‘And they beat us in a Leinster final in 2013 and there have been other days when we have beaten them. But they have usually been good games and I see this game as being no different.’
Canning remembers the 2015 replay as a ‘strange game.’ Galway had the advantage of a substantial wind in the first half at O’Connor Park and it yielded instant results — Cathal Mannion had scored a hat-trick within the opening 12 minutes and the game was over as a contest.
‘Yeah, it was a funny game because it was only the week before that they should have beaten us. But the replay was a totally different game. We were lucky enough in a way, some of the goals dropped in over our heads and there was a flick,’ he says.
‘It was a strange game alright but it wasn’t a true reflection on Dublin because we had felt very lucky to come away with the draw a week before.’
Still, Galway’s annihilation of the Dublin full-back line that afternoon was yet another example of how the maroon forwards can destroy any defence when they click. It was the start of another long summer in 2015, although the Tribesmen’s path was blocked by a black and amber wall twice that year, in the Leinster final and later in the All-Ireland final.
As Canning sets out for a 10th summer, hoping that this will be the one that he captures that elusive Celtic Cross, he knows that the key with Galway, as it ever is, is delivering on the vast potential within the squad.
With the likes of Conor Cooney, Conor Whelan and Cathal Mannion maturing and continuing to improve in the inside-forward line, it has allowed Canning to move out the field and take up more of a provider role at centre-forward. And as he showed in an excellent performance against Tipperary in the Gaelic Grounds, he’s thriving in the role.
‘The potential has always been there. I think Cathal finished that year (2015) as the top scorer from play We have always had that potential. Galway always had good forwards, no matter what.
‘It was just to get consistency of the whole team playing together and being able to deliver back-toback performances, because we were always able to beat anyone on any given day.
‘But we probably didn’t back it up the following day with another performance. So the big thing for us is to get that consistent and perform every single day.’
That is why all eyes will be on Tullamore this Sunday. If Galway follow on from their mauling of Tipperary last month by doing the same thing to Dublin, it will be a sign that there is something different about the Tribesmen this year and that this physically powerful and gifted side may finally be the ones to bridge that long gap in taking Liam MacCarthy back west across the Shannon.