Evergreen Canning enjoying medal-laden golden years

OLLIE CANNING is heading into his 17th year as a senior hurler with Portumna — and he is as keen and fired-up now as he was when donned the jersey for the first time as a 16-year old.

He was unburdened by the weight of silverware during the first decade with Portumna but since the autumn of 2003 five county medals and three All-Irelands have been garnered.

He admits: “It is not too hard to stay motivated when you have success. It’s a lot harder to keep putting the effort in when things are not going your way.

“People in Portumna know what it is like to go a long time without success and that is why it is being appreciated so much at the moment,” says the 33-year-old whose father Sean hurled with neighbouring Killimor as the Portumna club did not field for a few barren years in the 60s and early 70s.

Underage success in the mid-80s subsequently provided the talent to get promoted from intermediate and another cluster of successful juvenile teams in the late 90s yielded the crop which backboned the current run of success.

And it has been some run.

They never won the Galway senior title before 2003 but they have not been out of the final since, creating a record in the autumn when they became the first side to reach seven in a row, five of which ended in victory.

“There is a lot of hard work behind all of it, there is no denying that. Success did not come without an awful lot of hard graft and it has been maintained because the work is being put in by every one on and off the field,” says the four-time All Star who is also the club’s assistant treasurer.

“We know it won’t last forever, but we do want to make it last as long as possible,” says Canning, who works for kitchen manufacturers Western Postform in Ballinasloe.

He knows it will take a special effort to see off Ballyhale Shamrocks today as they bid to become the first side in the history of the club championships to win three All-Ireland club titles in a row.

“They were favourite last year going into the semi-finals but we got the goals early. If you take the first 10 minutes out of it there was nothing between the sides for the rest of the game.

“They are a proud club and will be anxious to avenge that but it is up to Portumna to meet and deal with that challenge. We wouldn’t expect it to be any other way.

“We will prepare for the game the exact same as we do for every other match. Minimising mistakes will be the key as there won’t be much in it but we will go into it the same way as we have for the other games and hope that is enough to carry us across the line.”