OLLIE: MY BRO DIDN’T DESERVE A JOE CANING!

GALWAY legend Ollie Canning insists younger brother Joe was right to go for glory late on in August’s All-ireland final.

Joe had a long-range free eight minutes into injury-time to tie it up with Limerick and force a replay but miscued his strike.

The ball dropped agonisingly short and Limerick escaped with a one-point win prompting claims the Portumna wizard might have been better off working the ball upfield.

But sibling and ex-allstar Ollie says there’s no question it was the right call and hit out at those who questioned Joe.

Canning said: “What’s the old saying, ‘Hindsight is the foresight of a gobsh**e’.

“It’s very easy to say that afterwards, that he should have took it short. If he had gone short and if someone had intercepted it or if a shot eventually went wide, then all you’d be hearing is ,’Why didn’t he go for it?’

“He’s hit them from that distance plenty of times before. It wasn’t outside his range, it was just probably outside his comfort zone but that’s a different thing entirely. I’ve seen him myself score them from that distance. Was he right to go for it? He was.”

Reigning Hurler of the Year Joe admitted in an interview after the final that he ‘tried to hit it too hard and I miss-hit it a little bit’. Ollie added: “He had to take that free on, if he’d got a perfect connection he’d more than likely have scored.

“Was he disappointed? Yes. But do you beat yourself up over it? No. You can’t, that’s just the way sport goes.”

Joe also admitted after the final that if Galway had secured a replay it would have been ‘daylight robbery’.

Ollie agreed that Limerick deserved the landmark win but claimed that the Tribesmen will return a rejuvenated force in 2019. He said: “As a team, the feedback from Joe was that the lads were disappointed, they felt they could have done things differently.

“They felt the performance wasn’t enough to win the game and they accept that. But they also know that a one-point loss doesn’t make them a bad team.

“They’ll be disappointed they didn’t close it out but I feel that when Galway get back training and get the winter over them, they’re going to come back really hungry.”

Ultra experienced Joe is in the running to retain the Hurler of the Year award. He’ll go up against colleague Padraic Mannion and Limerick’s Cian Lynch and could become the first player to win back to back titles.

Ollie said: “These awards don’t bother Joe, if they did he wouldn’t be the player he is.

“To be fair, they’re all deserving candidates.

You could have put five or six on the shortlist.”