Canning keen to deflect credit towards others

WHEN your name is Joe Canning, everyone wants a piece of you.

Yesterday the young scoring sensation from Galway was in Dublin to receive the award for hurling in the Irish Examiner National Junior Sports Stars awards. In a week's time he'll be trotting out at Croke Park with Portumna in the AIB All-Ireland Club final, and he will represent a further six teams at one stage or another this calendar year.

A minor All-Ireland winner with Galway last year as well, Canning's successes may be remarkable but his story in 2005 was mirrored by every one of the other 20 recipients yesterday across the sporting spectrum at yesterday's reception.

With so many accolades heaped on them so young, these young stars could be forgiven for carrying egos as oversized as their talents but, ask any of them to explain their successes, and all deflect the credit towards others.

"I've got a good family around me and if you get too hyped up about it, it won't be long before the legs are cut from under you," said Canning. "It's a nice reward for the end of the year and all the work but having that support is very useful.

"They give great advice and, without them, I doubt if I would be here today. I'd be accepting this on behalf of the players on all the other teams I was on. That's who I'm collecting it for because, without them, I wouldn't be collecting this at all."

Canning will have little enough time to sit down and reflect on this latest bauble, truth be told. St Patrick's Day looms and, despite his tender years, he knows only too well that Portumna have earned themselves an opportunity that very few teams get to experience.

He is determined to make the very most of their contest with Newtownshandrum. "We're looking forward to it. The community is buzzing. It's the first time we've been in an All-Ireland final so hopefully it's not the last.

"We'd like to win this one because you never know if you'll get there again. It's tough there in Galway with Athenry and there's new teams coming on the whole time like Turloughmore, Gort and others and it's getting tougher every year. Who knows if we'll ever get this far again."

Win or lose next week, the odds are short indeed on Canning adding further to his burgeoning collection of trophies and awards. The same could be said for Kilkenny's Davy Morris.

In the last two years, he has won national snooker titles at U16, U17, U19 and U21 levels, as well as becoming Irish senior champion - all at the age of 17. Then again, success is nothing new to him. Yesterday he picked up his third Irish Examiner Junior Sports Star award. Does he ever get tired of all these accolades?

"Not at all. They're all great to win. There's so many people do brilliantly in their sports and don't get the recognition they deserve so it's great to be getting them so young. People get to know about you, to hear about you and, if you do make it later, they can say 'I remember him or her'. It's great to have that exposure. A lot of people and a lot of professions don't have that.

"The main thing is to appreciate the awards. When you go home and you see the awards and the trophies on the counter, that's when you realise that you have done a lot. When you're picking them up one by one there's a danger they can all seem the same. I want to win as much as I can while I can and this award is another great boost to my career."

Despite all his early successes, Morris' eyes are always on a bigger prize and they don't come much bigger than the one he is hoping to claim one day at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

"The big aim is to turn professional as soon as I can and then go to the top as quick as I can and stay there. I want to do what Ken (Doherty) has done and that's win the World Championship."