Smith: Award is down to team effort

Galway were given a boost today ahead of their NHL Division 1 semi-final against Cork as Portumna attacker Andrew Smith picked up the Vodafone Hurler of the Month award for March.

The half-forward rifled home 2-2 for Portumna as they captured their second All-Ireland senior club hurling title in three years on St. Patrick's Day, thanks to a comfortable final victory over Offaly kingpins Birr.

Smith was delighted to collect the Hurler of the Month award and also that his club-mate Joe Canning is in line to join him in the Galway squad.

"This award, it's a great honour for myself but it's a team effort," Smith told breakingnews.ie.

"We had a great win on Paddy's Day and it's not down to one player but the panel. It's just a great achievement for me personally and it's a reflection on the great effort the team and panel put in over the year.

"Birr are a great club side and they are absolutely fabulous and we knew we had it all to do coming up on Paddy's Day. They have a great tradition in the club championship.

"But we knew that if we knuckled down ourselves and applied the work-rate and put into practice what we are doing in training that we wouldn't be too far away and thankfully it paid off," he added.

"Five of us have been called into the Galway squad already and we are back training with them for the last week-and-a-half so that will bring us on hopefully.

"Joe (Canning) has been talking to the Galway management and the other five of us have gone in already so it's up to him. Training is going well."

However Smith was not non-committal on the speculation that veteran player Ollie Canning, brother of Joe, will be making a return to the Galway side.

"Maybe Ollie would go in, I'm not sure yet," he insisted.

Smith was also keen to stress that there is no more animosity between the Portumna club and the Galway County Board and that the 2006 Galway SHC final and its aftermath is all water under the bridge.

"That has been swept under the carpet. The media blew that out of proportion as a result. That's dead and buried at this stage and we don't think about it any more."

Smith has already got his eye on a mouth-watering clash with Cork this weekend in the league semi-finals, with the championship also looming large.

"We had a lot of matches last week in training and it's a wind-down this week with plenty of stretching and rest.

"Galway training is going well and I think we will be well up for the Cork game on Sunday," said.

And although one club championship campaign has just finished, already Smith is back in action in the Portumna jersey.

"We only got back ourselves as a team on Tuesday evening when we had a league game. Obviously we have two All-Ireland titles in three years which is a great achievement for ourselves.

"We are under no illusions that we will have a very tough Galway championship this year and it is very hard to get out of, but we will be ready for it and we won't look past that."