Canning says Henry right to take a point — even if it upset JJ

It was one of the major talking points after last Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final, Henry Shefflin’s gamble to take a point from a penalty in the 68th minute, with the game tied.

And, Galway’s Joe Canning claims the decision didn’t impress Cats full-back JJ Delaney.

What exactly did JJ say?

Joe wasn’t saying exactly, but explained: “He (JJ) probably would have went for it himself, I’ll just put it that way!

“He thought Henry should have went for the goal. People asked me after what I would have done. I probably would have went for a point as well, because at that time of the game, a point was crucial. If he missed it, people would have said ‘why didn’t he tap it over the bar?’

“It’s a very thin line and he’s probably the most experienced player on the pitch. At the time he thought it was the right thing to do. If it was saved and we went down the pitch and got a point or a goal, it could have swung things in our favour.”

As for his own game-tying injury-time point, a free from 45m wide left having missed from an easier angle minutes before, wasn’t as nerveless as it looked, Joe admitted: “I kind of mishit the last one, I didn’t mean to hit it that low.

“There were three Kilkenny players in front of me, it was lucky enough it went over!

“I had massive doubts from missing the one before but that’s part and parcel of it as well. That’s the one I think of more than the one I scored, how the outcome might have been different. But if you’d got the first one, you mightn’t have got the chance for the second one, so you never know.”