The latest Canning star must bide time

AS THE latest gifted hurler to roll off the family’s production line, Jack Canning has had to get used to the odd comparison with his uncle Joe. But he insists that he is not weighed down by the family name and that he is determined to make his own mark on the hurling field. ‘People ask me a lot about that but I try not to focus on it too much,’ Canning said ahead of tonight’s Leinster under-21 final, where he has been kept on the bench by a Galway team looking to create history by claiming the title in their first year playing at that grade in their adopted province. ‘I have to go out and hurl for myself. Joe is not going to go out and hurl for me. Joe is a great role model. Hurling is nice to do but it is only a hobby. Obviously, I take it seriously but there are other things in life. It is not all about sport.’ Canning, who scored two goals to inspire Galway minors to AllIreland success on the same day that the seniors lifted Liam MacCarthy after a 29-year famine, was involved in some training panels with the seniors earlier this year, but feels he still needs to develop before he makes the leap to their ranks. ‘I was in there a few times, playing training games. It’s a different animal. It is very tough. Joe had a bit more experience playing senior with the club when he went in. I am in my second year with the club, he had four years with the club by the time he went in there. Hopefully, with a bit more experience with the club, I might get in there at some stage It would be nice to play with Joe in a Galway jersey but we’ll take it as it comes.’ Canning was a talented rugby player during his teens, having played with Ballinasloe and in schools rugby with Roscrea, but he says that the talk of Connacht academy was just that, talk. Hurling has always been his main sporting love, which is what made last September, when he won an AllIreland minor medal and his uncle won a senior medal, all the sweeter. ‘I still had to go out and deliver my own performance,’ Canning says, recalling the minor final. ‘It was a good experience. It is not every day you get to play at Croke Park. It was a great experience, especially with Joe there. Getting the two goals wasn’t too bad. I had to redeem myself after my first-half performance and I got a bit of ball in the second-half and did something with it.’