At 27, Joe Canning’s able to see beyond the flak and the flames

You can find a remarkable TV show on the internet featuring the Canning, Lynch, Smith and Hayes brothers of Portumna as their club plotted their way to three All-Ireland titles in four years around the end of the last decade.

In it, you see a 20-year-old Joe Canning and his bleached hair, flaking sliotars up against the corrugated iron shed on his family farm, honing his skills with a bit of target practice on an old car tyre.

By the end of the ‘Pride of the Parish’ show, Canning had accumulated a minor All-Ireland medal, four Galway county titles and three club All-Irelands. For years, older brother Ollie was the standout hurler from the parish, but the murmurs of ‘wait till you see the younger fella’ started long before Joe first represented Galway.