Canning confirms Galway absence

BAD news for Ger Loughnane and for Galway hurling fans.

Teenage star Joe Canning reiterated yesterday that he will not play for the county side this year and is to spend the summer travelling.

“I made the decision a year ago. I’ve been hurling for the last three or four years non-stop, I wanted to take a break for a while, live a teenager’s life. I’m only gone 18 since last October,” said the former Irish Examiner National Junior Sports Star Award winner.

He continued: “I’ll go to a few places around Europe for the summer – I was going to go to America but I couldn’t, the date for the club championship was brought forward to June 1, so I’d have missed my own club championship in Galway. I didn’t go because of that. I love the club, club is number one to me. If you ask me, playing an All-Ireland senior final with the club in the morning or playing an All-Ireland senior club final, I’d play the club, full-stop.

“I want to concentrate for the moment on trying to win back the county title with the club.”

Though he expects to return from his travels in August, he wouldn’t be offering his services to Loughnane explaining: “If I change my mind in August, it wouldn’t be fair on the others in the panel just for me to walk back in.”

This wasn’t a hasty decision by Canning, an Information Systems student at LIT in Limerick, with whom he won a Fitzgibbon Cup this year. On the field he has long been singled out for his maturity, due to his coolness under even the most extreme pressure. In March of 2006, aged 17, he was the main man behind Portumna’s All-Ireland club success when Newtownshandrum were defeated, scoring 1-6.

That maturity was equally evident yesterday as he went deeper into the reasons for his decision.

It wasn’t just about living the good life for a year; it was about protecting himself from burnout, the new buzzword in the GAA.

“Obviously that was a factor. I’ve won two U-16’s with the county, won two minor All-Irelands and lost the one last year. That is five years solid hurling at underage, while I’m just growing up. That could take its toll in another few years. Obviously at the moment it hasn’t, but I’m looking forward, I want to keep playing for as long as I possibly can.”

He has come under huge pressure to change his mind. It’s not as if Galway win All-Ireland senior hurling titles every second year. The last time they won, September 1988, Joe wasn’t even born, but what if, managed by the inspirational Loughnane, it were to happen this year, then another 18-year wait?

Also at yesterday’s adidas promotion was Eoin Kelly.

In 2001 with Kelly their scoring star, Tipperary came storming through the pack to win their first All-Ireland title since 1991. Kelly’s age? 19, and Tipperary haven’t won a title since. A lesson?

Yes, but Joe is taking a gamble, a calculated gamble.

“It’s hard to know – that’s a chance I’ll have to take, but that’s my decision on it. It’s going to be very hard if Galway do win an All-Ireland this year — I think it could be next year. Galway have to change a lot of things to win an All-Ireland, but I think Ger Loughnane will bring that in, and hopefully next year, they’ll win it.

“I can’t see them winning it this year; Waterford are peaking, Cork are still there.

“They’re going through a bit of a transition as well, people don’t really see that. With Gerald McCarthy they’re changing their style but they’re still very good. Kilkenny are always there at the end of the year, so I think it’s going to be very hard for Galway this year.”