How Galway’s hurlers found guts and glory

Joe Canning has flourished since being moved out to centre forward after last year’s Leinster final, writes Kieran Shannon

He’s been as good as his word.

Fourteen months ago, Joe Canning sat in a circle with the Galway team the Tuesday after another Leinster final defeat to Kilkenny, his thumbs bridging his chin. For only the second time in his senior championship career, he had been held scoreless from play, cutting a peripheral, subdued figure at full forward, while outside the refuge of that hotel meeting room, a hurricane of public and media criticism was blowing, with one famous Clare man dismissing the team as simply gutless.