Records tumbling as Canning takes chance to join hurling royalty
ALMOST lost in the fine print of Galway’s Leinster Championship victory over Kilkenny last weekend was another career milestone for Hurler of the Year Joe Canning. In the second half, en route to compiling a goal and a dozen points that included a penalty, seven frees and a 65, he leapfrogged Eddie Keher and went second in the all-time Championship scorer list, only Henry Shefflin ahead of him.
A milestone day by any standards.
It wasn’t just the county’s first home match in the provincial competition that lent an air of history to the day – here was one of the game’s modern superstars rewriting the record books.
Indeed, his tally was such that he jumped from fourth in the list at the throw-in to second, also surpassing the remarkable scoring feats of Tipperary’s Eoin Kelly who hit 21-368 (431 points) in 63 career appearances.
Given the pain he has suffered at the hands of the men in black and amber – this was Galway’s first Championship win over Kilkenny in six years – it surely gave Canning extra satisfaction to eclipse one of the game’s legendary figures in Keher.
It’s one aspect of the new-look round-robin Championship that has almost been overlooked: the rise in the number of games gives players the opportunity to break more records.
By lining out against Wexford last night, Canning equalled another of Keher’s career milestones: a half century of Championship appearances.
As it stands in the scoring stakes, Henry Shefflin is another league ahead of Canning, his career tally of 27484 (565 points) leaving him well over 100 points clear of the Galway player who has scored 26-377 (455 points) in 50 appearances after last night’s clash with Wexford.
In isolation, that sounds like an insurmountable hurdle. Or it would do if Galway’s summer was dependent on the mercies of a knock-out Championship.
But with the round-robin guaranteeing every county at least four Championship games, and with the likes of Galway planning for much more, it’s well within Canning’s capabilities to finish top of the all-time scorer list. Any top player who doubles as the team’s free-taker would have a double-digits target in his head. A 110-point gap, in theory, might take just 11 games to reel in.
Canning’s match average in Championship is a staggering nine points.
If Galway go the shortest route to an All-Ireland final, it still involves seven games: four in the round-robin, a provincial final, an All-Ireland semi-final and then the final. Finishing third in either of the provincial groups and an All-Ireland then involves a minimum of eight games when a preliminary quarter-final, quarter-final, semi and final are factored in.
With the extra number of guaranteed games, it’s a matter of course that the all-time Championship appearance record will come under scrutiny. Brendan Cummins currently leads the way on 73 but this afternoon at the Gaelic Grounds should see another bit of history. Currently tied on 71 with Shefflin, Waterford’s Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh is set to go out on his own in second. With his county still having two games left to play in the round-robin stage, he should seal another bit of history for himself by going clear at the top.
This spring’s National League was all about Hurling’s 100 Club.
Here was a first in the 20season Brian Cody era – the first time Kilkenny broke the 100point mark in the group stages of hurling’s top flight since the new six-team format was introduced in 2012.
In the very same fifth and final group game, it turned out that opponents Wexford broke the 100-point barrier too for the first time.
Three teams in fact broke that barrier – Kilkenny on 106 white flags, Tipperary on 105 and Wexford on 101. Tipperary became the first Division 1A team to breach the 100-point mark for the fourth year running.
The scale of the change? From 2012 to 2014, the first three seasons of the reformatted League, no team hit it.
Galway made history in various different ways last year: no team to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup ever went four matches without finding the net. This year they have addressed that deficiency in some style.
In Keher’s era, to lift and strike a 65-metre free over the bar was its own achievement. To understand how the limits of the game have been stretched, it was formative to see Galway goalkeeper James Skehill bombing the ball down on the Kilkenny full-back line last weekend, with a stiff Salthill breeze at his back. One puck-out actually went out for a 65 – off the finger of Kilkenny full-back Pádraig Walsh. Imagine. Literally, end-to-end.
As the round-robin becomes part of the furniture of a brave new hurling world, don’t be surprised if more records tumble.