JOE CANNING WAS bemused after the recent hurling league final.
He and his Galway team-mates handed out quite a beating to the reigning All-Ireland champions in the Gaelic Grounds.
Yet the rush to anoint them as 2017 Liam MacCarthy Cup favourites while simultaneously shredding the summer hopes of Tipperary, did not sit right with the 28-year-old.
“We have to be realistic about these things, we aren’t trying to sensationalise things, like a lot of people were after the league final.
“I found it quite strange. You saw it last year after the All-Ireland final, people writing off Kilkenny just because they lost one game.
“I don’t think any other team would have beaten Waterford in the two matches coming into that All Ireland and people write them off.
“If you delve into it or really analyse it properly we had a lot of bad shot selections. We had a good few wides.
“There were lots of things we weren’t happy about. So it wasn’t as great a performance as people made it out to be.
“We know it isn’t a true reflection on us, it isn’t a true reflection on Tipperary. You take a lot of things after games with a pinch of salt because 70 minutes can change a lot of people’s views and perspectives very easily.
“That’s not how I view it. I would rather view it over a long period of matches or time.”
Is there a general tendency for knee-jerk reactions in Irish sport?
“A little bit, maybe it is just our culture. That is it, I find it funny enough sometimes the way people react to winning and losing in different ways.”
Canning is preparing for his 10th season on the inter-county senior circuit.
They’ll fire their first shots in Leinster on 28 May against Dublin but Canning yearns for a system that will put more games in front of him.
“I’d love to just play seven, eight games in the summer, every week or every two weeks.
“That’s what every player wants to do, they want to play matches. Even just chatting to Patrick Curran (from Waterford) there, they have 10 weeks from their last league game until they play championship.
“We’re lucky enough that we got to the league final but we’ve still five weeks I think between league and championship.”
A potential new hurling championship format would solve that problem and also hand Galway the benefit of playing on home soil in the summer.
Canning isn’t perturbed as a player at the thought of playing in Pearse Stadium but sees positive spin-offs elsewhere.
“It is great for the county board. It is great for kids, It is all about trying to promote the game.
“I think I said before you take Connacht (rugby) there is easy access because they are playing every second week at home. The best day we had in a long time in Galway was probably the double header between ourselves and Waterford and Galway and Kildare in the football.
“It actually showcased both teams at home and you could get the home support to see matches close to home. We don’t get to promote the game for the future of Galway.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t mind where we are playing as long as we have matches.”
He spent enough time on the sideline after last August’s All-Ireland semi-final loss to Tipperary to relish their current run.
A severe hamstring tear could have had grave consequences but he worked hard to rehab and feels fortunate at the time of the season it occurred.
“In a way I was lucky that I didn’t miss too many big matches. It happened throughout the winter. I missed the second half (v Tipp) and a club quarter final.
“They were the only two that I felt sick about, saying I’d love to be out there. If there was a time to get it, it was okay to get the injury that time of year.
“I was lucky that it wasn’t gone fully like Brian (Hurley). I was reading a bit about him and I was thinking was it the same as mine or not. It wasn’t, but his was a lot more serious.
“You’d often wonder would it go again, but it is fine, it is grand. You read different things, there was a piece that I had a point to prove in the league this year at 28 years of age, it was a funny thing.
“That was one thing I have proved anyway by winning the League. I am one of the older guys in there at the moment.
“I feel I’m fitter probably than I ever was. They say you only hit your peak at 27 or 28. I’m hopefully hitting that.”
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Bord Gáis Energy today launched its new #HurlingToTheCore campaign at Croke Park to mark the beginning of a summer of hurling.
#HurlingToTheCore celebrates Bord Gáis Energy’s belief that hurling is more than a sport or pastime – it is deeply ingrained in Irish history and stitched into our national identity.
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