Canning: All the pressure on Dubs

Joe Canning has heaped the pressure on relegation rivals Dublin by claiming he wouldn’t like to be in their shoes.

The talismanic Galway forward is out of Sunday’s crucial Division 1A play-off in Tullamore with ongoing shoulder trouble. But it hasn’t stopped him offering a frank assessment of the state of affairs regarding both teams.

“They have more experience than us as a panel of players,” said Canning. “There will be more pressure on them seeing as they are league champions and fighting a relegation final. It’s huge for them. I wouldn’t like to be in a situation where you’re league champions fighting relegation, no matter what players you’re missing.”

But the ex-underage wizard cut them little slack and also claimed Dublin have benefited in recent seasons from Galway’s move into Leinster.

“In a way, us coming into Leinster took the limelight off Dublin,” he said. “It took a small bit of pressure off them because people were talking about us and Kilkenny..”

Daly and his Dubs will take Canning’s comments with a pinch of salt, though it’s clearly a high stakes tie.

“To be honest, to be straight up about it, obviously the likes of Kilkenny, Tipperary, Cork and Waterford are the teams you’d want to be playing against to improve,” he said.

“You play the best to be the best.”

Galway slipped into the relegation battle after a crushing 25-point loss to Kilkenny. Their task now is to pick themselves up from that defeat and repeat the performance they turned in against Dublin in round one.

“You have to be straight up about the Kilkenny game — it was embarrassing for us to be beaten by so much,” said Canning.

“But Kilkenny will do that to you. They did it to Cork and Tipperary a couple of years ago as well.

“They can do that to you on a given day. You have to just take it on the chin and move on.”

“We’re putting a lot of emphasis on the development team that’s running side-by-side with the senior team, likewise on the U21 team again this year, on the minors also.

“That’s the kind of development you need. It’s a long, slow process.”