Canning held to a higher standard among his own
WHAT struck me last weekend watching Cork and Kilkenny play out a thriller in Páirc Uí Rinn before Tipperary and Galway produced more fireworks in Pearse Stadium, is that we are living through a golden age of hurling. Everybody likes to look back on the great players of the past but we have some phenomenal players at the peak of their powers at the moment.
In recent years, the greatest Kilkenny team of all time – indeed, for many, the greatest team of all time – have come and gone with players like Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh and JJ Delaney matching any that have gone before. Then you had others like Noel Hickey and Eddie Brennan. Or Lar Corbett and Eoin Kelly of Tipperary. And the great Cork team before them that won back-to-back All-Irelands with Diarmuid O’Sullivan, the O’Connor twins, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and Dónal Óg Cusack.
But the two games in Division 1A alone last weekend threw up some remarkable hurling for the month of March. For Cork, some of the scores from Conor Lehane and Séamus Harnedy were out of this world. There was Kilkenny’s fightback and Colin Fennelly, with a touch of the Johnny Flahertys – the officials wondering whether he used his hand or a stick to get the ball to the net. TJ Reid showed why he is hurler of the year with a second goal before John Power struck the winner deep in injury time to add to the drama.
In Galway, visitors Tipp played crisp, wristy hurling, Mikey Breen is continuing to blossom, the two McGraths – Noel and John – were full of sweet touches. Brendan Maher made an outrageous catch and John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer nailed the equaliser.
Meanwhile Joe Canning stole the show with another five- star individual goal and a trademark sideline cut near the end, just for good measure.
Indeed, if the Portumna man was from Tipperary or Kilkenny – and he had All-Irelands in his back pocket – he’d be regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, which he is.
The criticism of him seems to be that he doesn’t always produce the goods on the biggest day – which is sometimes fair, sometimes not. All the pressure comes down to him with Galway.
Go back to DJ Carey’s first few All-Ireland finals with Kilkenny – it’s tough, mentally, having to always lead the attack on the big day.
Because the history of All-Ireland finals shows that other players often pop up from left field to star. Fergie Tuohy for Clare stunned us all in Offaly in 1995, hitting four points, when all the focus was on Jamesie O’Connor. Or Aidan Fogarty winning man of the match another year for Kilkenny; Walter Walsh doing the same.
Last year was a great opportunity for that opinion to be shed as far as Canning was concerned. He was flying after moving out to centre-forward only to be put back in full-forward in the second half and taken out of the game.
We saw last Sunday what he can do from out the field. Is he an 11 or 14? I’d stick with him at 11.
Take the rest of the Galway forward line: Cathal Mannion, Jason Flynn, Conor Whelan, and you’ve Niall Burke coming back. Davy Glennon is another option. Have you got a full-forward without Joe there and Johnny Glynn in America? It means new manager Micheál Donoghue has a huge decision to make.
Joe lit up Nowlan Park around midfield in the previous game against Kilkenny but, for me, he shouldn’t be taken too far from the scoring zone. At midfield, you’re required to put in a level of defensive work which is different altogether.
The day of leaving him in full-forward when teams are frequently dropping a man back to sit in front of the 14 is gone – it’s too easy to contain him. For Joe’s sake – and the team’s sake – I’d leave him at centre-forward.
The goal he got last week wasn’t far off the one he hit in the Leinster final in terms of individual skill.
How you talk about the greats of the game is that they could do things that no one else could do – that applies to the likes of Carey, Shefflin, Reid, Eddie Brennan and Eoin Kelly.
Against a top defence, Canning waltzed through for the goal like it was an under-14 match and stuck it in the net.
Maybe it’s down to the bit of venom on the club scene but the Galway public don’t seem to acknowledge him enough for his talent. Whereas in Kilkenny, the respect for Shefflin is unequivocal. It’s almost as if Joe Canning is more revered around the country than in his own county.
Indeed, we’re spoiled for choice with so many super hurlers at the moment. The game is really alive. There’s a lot of great coaching going on that’s helping to produce great players – what we need to do now is to get the balance right between the commitment needed at inter-county level and the other aspects of players’ personal and professional lives.
Dublin’s Oisín Gough, who stepped off the county panel to study last year, said during the week that playing top-level hurling was almost a career in itself. That’s crazy. We need to respect the players and allow them lead their lives. This is a golden era for the players – we can bring that forward or destroy it because it’s not sustainable what they’re doing.
Let them have a balance. It’s not feasible, what they are being asked to give by county managers.