Joe Canning has no interest in extending Galway hurling’s feud with Ger Loughnane, nor is he willing to simply forget what the Sunday Game pundit said.
Speaking exclusively to The GAA Hour Hurling Show, the Galway talisman admits that the former Clare and Galway manager’s criticism was hurtful and he did use it as motivation heading into Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final.
Canning scored 1-8 and put in a superb defensive display as Galway defeated the Banner by 2-17 to 0-17 in Thurles.
Loughnane was not alone in criticising the Galway hurling team in the wake of their Leinster final defeat to Kilkenny, but it was his labelling of the Tribesmen as having “no guts whatsoever” that grabbed the headlines.
This Galway team has guts, this Galway team has Joe Canning https://t.co/R2whgQXvtW
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 24, 2016
“It got a little bit personal and it wasn’t just Ger. there were other high profile journalists there. There is no point in saying it didn’t hurt, it did.
“We were under savage pressure going into yesterday and luckily we got the result. I know the next day if we don’t beat Tipperary they will probably have the same knives out again.
“You don’t mind if the criticism is about your hurling but when it is about your character and stuff like that it is a totally different story,” canning told SportsJOE GAA Editor Colm Parkinson.
“I took it as a little bit of motivation because a lot of it was aimed at me and a few of the other boys, so it does sharpen the mind. I know as well as anyone you are six inches from a pat on the back or a kick up the ass. If we don’t get a performance against Tipperary the next day it is going to be the same thing again.”
Canning’s comments will confirm the fears of Clare people, including manager Davy Fitzgerald, that Loughnane’s comments provided Galway with added motivation. However Canning believes such criticism goes above and beyond reasonable debate.
“It was over the top,” he said. “We’re amateur sportspeople and sometimes people forget it is only a hobby and we do this in our spare time. When it comes down to it that is what it is.”
Loughnane’s follow-up column in the Irish Daily Star, which focussed on the Canning and his brother Ollie, suggested the axe he wished to grind related to their decision not to line out for the county in 2007, when he was the senior hurling manager.
Canning was still a teenager at the time and there was a suggestion that his decision to opt out was down to a particularly stormy county final encounter with Loughrea.
“There is a paper clipping from the 5th of October, before we even played the county semi-final of 2006,” said Canning. “I was quoted as saying in the paper that I wouldn’t play senior hurling that year. I made up my mind long before that county final ever happened.”
Canning, due to his immense talent, has become a lightning rod for all criticism of Galway. The illnesses of his parents have helped the 27-year-old realise that hurling is a pastime and there are more important things for him to worry about. Besides, he has another family member keeping him grounded.
“After the Leinster final my nephew was out on the lawn with his socks pulled up, pretending to be TJ Reid. That fairly brought me back down to earth that day anyway.”
No longer the free-scoring full-forward who captured the public imagination, Canning is developing into a more rounded, tactically astute and defensively-minded player. One who Sunday was clearing balls off his own line, getting in hooks and blocks and dropping deep to take possession.
Yet he is still criticised for not dragging Galway to a first All-Ireland title in 28 years.
“At the end of the day we keep coming back. We have been to two All-Irelands in the last four years, quarter-finals, semi-finals and Leinster finals. Just because we don’t win doesn’t mean we are not trying to lead or win the game.
“We wouldn’t be there is we didn’t think we were good enough. Most of the guys have won lots throughout their career.
“The only medal I haven’t won is an All-Ireland senior medal, out of everything. I take that with a pinch of salt. That is the facts of it, that is not being arrogant or cocky. That is just the facts.”
Listen to the whole interview below. You can subscribe to the GAA Hour on iTunes here and you can listen to our football show with Wooly, Senan Connell and Conán Doherty right here.
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