Joe Canning coping with the crazy talk

Joe Canning has seen — and heard — it all by now.

Patted on the back one day, kicked in the arse the next, Galway’s inconsistencies have left them at risk of being killed by kindness one day and drowned in bile the next. So he has taken the hyperbole since their 16-point league final defeat of Tipperary last month in his stride.

Underdogs pulling in to Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds, they departed for home that same evening with a whole new level of expectation circling them. Cyril Farrell, speaking on TV that evening, went as far as to say they were now favourites for the Liam MacCarthy.