History is bunk to this legend of Galway’s rise

COLM CALLANAN knows he is an outlier. The exception that proves the rule. He’s hurling’s equivalent of Benjamin Button, living out his career almost in reverse order.

Now 34, he goes against the convention that suggests the ceiling on any inter-county career is being lowered, rather than raised, in the modern game.

He was 33 when he won his first and only All Star, the reaction save from Lar Corbett’s double strike a thing of wonder in the 2015 All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary, and Exhibit A when it came to being honoured.

In the same game alone, he could point to a smart triple save from Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher, further saves from Shane Bourke and John O’Dwyer. Diverting a Séamus Callanan penalty over the bar was almost for show.

It’s only since he hit 30 that his career has taken off rather than tailed off.

Instead of his talent signalling him out from the start, he became a Galway senior hurler in unremarkable circumstances.

‘I’m in the squad since 2007, called in by Ger Loughnane to be the fourth goalkeeper behind Liam Donoghue, Aidan Ryan and James Skehill,’ he explains. ‘All I thought about was learning from them and getting a few sessions with them. And 10 years later I’m still here.’

Not just making up numbers either; he’s well established as Galway No 1. In today’s novel Leinster final against Wexford, he’ll be a key figure, given how the goalkeeping brief has evolved.

‘At 34, I’m definitely closer to the end of my career than the beginning. But I’m enjoying it, there are big games like this to be played. When I came in 10 years ago, did I think I’d be playing in a Leinster final 10 years later? No I didn’t − Leinster finals weren’t part of our season then.’

At that stage, Galway were still banished to the All-Ireland series wilderness, coming in cold to the knock-out stages. That didn’t mean they weren’t contenders though, not in a county with a consistent conveyor belt of talent.

‘Derek Hardiman, Greg Kennedy, the Kerins brothers [Alan and Mark], David Tierney − they were the leaders when I came in to the group 10 years ago. There were lads always trying to give you nuggets of advice. And now I suppose I’d be having a quiet word with the younger lads, just guiding them through and telling them about what was coming. You try and give a little bit of advice here and there.’ Later this month, he’ll actually turn 35 when, in so many other respects, it’s becoming a young man’s game. An inkling as to how he has stayed at the top of his game comes with his day job. Setting up a business as a personal trainer back home in Kinvara has helped to keep himself as much as others in good shape. The name − Fitclub − another take on a Brad Pitt theme. He just has to think back to the League defeat by Wexford to understand the challenge Galway face against a Davy Fitzgerald team. ‘Wexford are doing well. Davy has come in there and got a big reaction. They hurled very well in the League and beat us in Salthill and they’ve backed that League up in the Championship with their wins over Laois and Kilkenny. They will produce a big challenge, there will be a big crowd, hopefully it will be a good day for us.

‘We want the Leinster title for itself, and to avoid the qualifiers where there will be good teams coming through to play on the quarter-final weekend. We’ll deal with whatever pans out.’

He has lived through too many false dawns to take anything for granted. Not even in a year Galway are favourites for winning the AllIreland after the emphatic nature of their league title win.

‘We wanted to get promotion but that didn’t work out but we were able to win the League and then go on to beat Dublin and Offaly. But we’re under no illusions that this is a step up again. We’ve a couple of Leinster finals lost now − it would be nice to win one this year.’

A forward line packed with players tipping past six feet is one distinguishing characteristic of the team, as Callanan admits. ‘We’ve a few extra big men this year. It’s just the way the game is going − you need big men with pace to win games. Hurling has really changed in the last while. Galway have been synonymous with having smaller speedy forwards over the years, now it is a bit different. We’ll take them and use them.’

And they have the hurling to go with any physical attributes. Putting 33 points on an Offaly team lining up with two sweepers was a devastating show of force.

‘Yes, we’ve got the radar locked on. What’s more interesting to me is that we’ve a good spread of scorers too, lots of lads are raising flags from left, right and middle as I look out from the goals. Now we need to keep that conversion rate up.

‘It was actually tough early on against Offaly. They played with two sweepers and it took us a while to figure them out − and they got the boost of a goal for the first score of the game. That wasn’t in our script and gave Offaly a tonic early in the game. We managed our way out of that situation, eventually, so it was a good reaction.’

Galway’s status as hurling’s ‘nearly men’ since 1988 has been well told, the last two All-Ireland semi-finals telling everything about the narrow margins.

In 2015, they beat Tipperary by the narrowest of margins before losing the final to Kilkenny; last August they lost to Tipperary by a single point. History is bunk, insists Callanan. ‘It was a great way to win in 2015 and a horrible way to lose last year. Sometimes it falls for you and it didn’t last year.

‘The last 30 years, since 1988, have nothing to do with the lads in the dressing-room. My God, we’ve lads now who were born in 1996 or 1997 − what have all the losses got to do with them?’