Cappataggle Kid has earned his spurs

GALWAY MANAGER Conor Hayes is a steady, sensible kind of a man, not at all given to hyperbole.

What to make of this statement yesterday, then, after his side had thoroughly outplayed Waterford in the Allianz Hurling League final at Limerick's Gaelic Grounds?

"Maybe today is a day for boasting, but I think we have the two best corner-backs in the country, in Damien Joyce and Ollie Canning. They were outstanding today, both of them. When the pressure came on, that was where we resisted most, in the full-back line. It's a credit to them, we had a lot of other very good players in the backs today, but they were particularly outstanding."

A manager getting a little carried away, perhaps, losing the run of himself in the euphoria of the moment? Not a bit of it.

Even in some of their darkest days over the past four or five years, Ollie Canning has long been the keeper of the flame in Galway, sometimes the lone keeper; he was a brilliant forward, he is a current All-Star corner-back, was named man-of-the-match yesterday after another magnificent performance. Indeed he made possibly the longest ever captain's acceptance speech after a National League final, but can be forgiven that indulgence.

In the eyes of many of the 16,000 plus crowd however, Canning was pipped for that man-of-the-match honour by his lesser-sung compadre in the other corner, Cappataggle's flying Damien Joyce. Cappataggle? Not exactly Athenry or Sarfields is it, nor any of the other nationally-known All-Ireland-winning Galway clubs?

Joyce laughs. "It's an intermediate club about halfway between Loughrea and Ballinasloe; we're not too bad, we got to the intermediate championship quarter-final last year. Some very good young lads coming through, great work being done at underage."

Joyce himself is the most obvious product of that good work and his latent emergence, along with full-back Diarmuid Cloonan, means that Galway now have a full-back to match any of the modern high-powered forward lines around. Except, perhaps, their own, in training, but then that's where they sharpen the razor edge.

In John Mullane and Paul Flynn, Waterford have two of the most potent attackers in the business. With his power and pace, Mullane can quickly slice even the tightest defence to ribbons; with his bullet-like shot, Flynn can pierce any rearguard; the third member of Decies full-forward triumvirate, Seamus Prendergast, isn't as well-known, but has being doing his share of damage during this League.

Yesterday, the trio were held to four points from play between them. All-Star Mullane, the man who, even more than Flynn, can get this Waterford team moving, was held to just a single point. By Joyce.

Mullane had been named to start in the right corner, Canning's domain; were he to line out elsewhere, many experts felt that Canning would probably be delegated to mark him anyway. It didn't happen. Mullane instead went to top of the left, Joyce received him with open arms.

"Waterford have a number of great forwards, they're one team that can score consistently, so it didn't really matter who you were going to be marking, any of them would be a threat in there. Whoever you were marking, we just decided to try and stick with him as best we could, and it worked out well."

Worked out better than well. Galway full-forward Eugene Cloonan hammered home two first-half goals, to put the Tribesmen in the driving seat; with Joyce wrapping up Mullane, Canning and Cloonan mopping everything that fell their way, not until the dying embers did Waterford ever look like getting the goal they needed to bring a very poor final to life.

As Cloonan pointed out: "goals make a difference in those games, and the longer Waterford went without a goal, the more of a cushion we had."

For that, they had Joyce and Canning, who personify the new Galway hurling style, to thank. There was never any doubt about the ability in the county, but manager Conor Hayes is instilling a new approach. An end to the old dilly-dallying that so destroyed so many other Galway title challenges, in League and championship, the tendency to be too showy, too individual, to overplay the ball. Galway are now playing a far more direct style, fast and whippy, and it starts at the back.

"We've been practicing that, moving the ball quickly out of defence," Hayes explained; "We don't have a John Hoyne or a Henry Shefflin up in attack that you can just plant the ball down on, we don't have a Dan Shanahan either, for that matter. The idea is to work the ball quickly up to our forwards, we have light fast forwards up there, the likes of Damien Hayes, Kevin Broderick, Alan Kerins, Adrian Cullinane there's no use pumping high ball in top of them.

"Speed really, the quick ball up, that's what we're aiming for, and it's difficult to counter. There's no point soloing thirty yards with the ball then trying to hand-pass it to nowhere, doing that over and over again. It's about work-rate really, and these lads worked very hard all day."

None worked harder, or more effectively, than the two corner-backs. No wonder Hayes was so effusive. Could be a long summer, for the men from the west.

And for the proud hurling folk of Cappataggle.