We must be cute as Cats

The greatness of this Kilkenny team and of Henry Shefflin in particular doesn’t stop at their pure hurling skills.

That was the controversial view yesterday of Galway’s star forward Joe Canning, who claims they are not always “sportsmanlike” and get an edge by knowing how to play the referee — an edge he is keen Galway develop.

Joe was in Thurles in his role as a Bord Gáis ambassador, promoting this Saturday’s All-Ireland U21 final, but was also willing to discuss events at last Sunday’s drawn All-Ireland senior hurling final.

Canning explained: “I suppose they are a bit cuter. In one instance in the first half, Henry ran 30 or 40 yards down the field and was giving out to Barry Kelly (referee) and Damien Hayes (Galway player) for a free. “That’s not sportsmanlike either. That’s probably the experience they have. Hopefully we can get that experience and use it to our advantage as well. You need everything you can get during those games.”

That influence also pays dividends, reckons Joe. “They got a lot of frees, got on top, and Kilkenny will do that to you. It’s very hard to stem the tide against a side like Kilkenny, they got a few decisions at crucial stages. We did fine I thought, we got a goal to come back into it, we never downed tools, fought to the end.”

Ironically, the free that caused most controversy was the free at the end, won by Galway sub Davy Glennon but hotly disputed by Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, leading to a sideline confrontation with his Galway counterpart, Anthony Cunningham.

Joe pointed that free to tie the game but, he says, didn’t see what led to it. “To be straight up, I didn’t see it. I was over the far side, in at full-forward. Some people say it wasn’t a free and others say it was. You get stuff during a match — they got a ball moved forward 15 yards and the same thing happened in the second half, the same players involved.

“You get those things during a match. I thought that on the field sometimes they influenced frees and stuff like that so they got very easy frees during the game as well.”

It was a new experience for Canning and for most of his Galway teammates, an All-Ireland senior final, a day most young hurlers dream of. The dream is one thing, however, the reality — much different.

“When you’re out on the field you don’t enjoy it. It’s not a place to enjoy it — you enjoy it after the match if you win and you don’t if you lose. But when you’re playing in such a high-intensity game, mentally more so than anything the mistakes and stuff are costing that extra point or two in a match — you don’t enjoy those things.

“I personally don’t believe them if they say they enjoy playing a match like that. It’s a thing you look back on and say, ‘yeah, I’ve played in it’ but ultimately you want to do your best — it’s like training, when you’re training as hard as you can you don’t enjoy running laps or anything like that. It’s the same in a match, when it’s high intensity, you don’t enjoy that.”

“It’s a very different game, , but even knowing all that, you try to keep things as ordinary as possible, try not to let that occasion overwhelm you.

“It was tense, very hard to hear yourself or even the guys around you, very hard to call for a ball or anything like that. Your spatial awareness needs to be a bit better. But ultimately it’s a game of hurling, you can’t treat it any differently. No matter what day you go to Croke Park it’s always going to be a big crowd. You just have to hurl away for 70 minutes.”

The problem now for Galway will be trying to repeat in the replay the heroics of last Sunday. There are those who say Galway have missed their opportunity. Not Canning: “We don’t believe that, the management or players. People didn’t give us any chance going into the final and we were leading by five points at half-time.

“We’re happy enough with the first-half performance but the second half wasn’t good enough. We’ve got another chance and hopefully we can do it the next day.”