Canning eager to make big impact in league

He doesn’t turn 25 until next October and already has three All Stars to his name but Joe Canning still knows how to do self-deprecation.

Coming from a hurler who described himself as “slow and one-sided” on social network Bebo a few years back, maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise, even if he has plenty of reason not to. However, he doesn’t mind mocking himself as his take on Galway’s early season plans revealed: “The ball isn’t moving as quickly as you’d like but maybe it suits me and slows the lads around me down!”

Last Saturday, Galway were virtually off the plane from their team holiday in Dubai and into a challenge game against Offaly in Banagher.

Unlike last year, when they went down by 25 points to Kilkenny in the last round of the Allianz Hurling League, next month’s competition won’t be as much of a trial and error period. Galway simply can’t afford to treat it with as an experimentation, given there is a yawning 11-week gap between their last game against Waterford and a Leinster semi-final.

Getting to a Division 1 final would cut the break by five weeks. The importance of a good campaign is not lost on them, says Canning.

“It’s huge. We found that last year with the replay against Dublin, which helped us in a way. We had an extra match to play and it helped me anyway because I missed all of the league.

“It’ll be good for us. We’ve Kilkenny at home in the first game and that’s huge and Clare then, who have huge work done already this year.

“It’s a tough start for us and we need to hit the ground running to progress to the latter stages of the league.”

GAA president Liam O’Neill’s insistence on Monday that any advantage rule for football could be applied to hurling brings to mind the All-Ireland final replay, when play was called back for a free, despite Cyril Donnellan finding the net. As a forward, Canning backs the idea: “A lot of that is common sense. Every referee is different. People see things differently.

“Cyril’s goal wasn’t disallowed because the referee blew his whistle and that’s the way it goes. That’s not an issue with us. But advantage would be a good thing. It’d be better for forwards to let them see where they want to go but the backs mightn’t be too happy!”