Canning conscious of creating more ‘great moments’ for Pádraig Pearses
Pádraig Pearses senior football manager, Frank Canning, in conversation with the local media during the club's press night ahead of Sunday's county senior football final against St. Brigid's. Picture: Gerard O'Loughlin
Outside the glory, the Canning family has always woven a tapestry with a love of place and community at its core.
Firstly Portumna and now, for Frank Canning, the green, fertile landscape of Pádraig Pearses where he has made his home for the last 24 years.
His three children — Seán, Eoin and Katie — are immersed in the club. In keeping with family tradition, there has been success along the way. But the key for the Pádraig Pearses senior football manager is a thriving dual club that is going from strength to strength.
“We have a brilliant club here. We have the senior hurling and senior football and then we have the ladies’ football and the camogie. We have everything going on.
“I am a sportsperson at heart. I would have been brought up and reared on the club being number one. I am delighted to have three kids involved — two lads on the senior football panel and the two of them playing senior hurling too. My daughter is involved with Pearses underage girls’ football teams too.
“Seán ended up a Nickey Rackard All-Star this year for the hurling and played with Roscommon. Those are great moments for my family, and the reality is they are great moments for Pearses.” The key for Canning is to see all entities within the club doing well.
“Everyone is striving. We have great lads involved in the hurling and in the football. We are not too far away in the hurling either. I love to see both doing well and the club growing.
“There are lots of great dual clubs around the country that everyone admires. When you hear about a dual club like Loughmore-Castleiney or Slaughtneil, the first thought that comes to my head is admiration.
“You think ‘jeez how are they doing it and fair play to them’. I think a lot of people should have admiration for what Pádraig Pearses are trying to do — to keep every code going, which is not easy. But it is achievable with the right minds and the right mindset,” he highlighted.
On the field, there have been tough days, and the manner of last year’s Connacht club final defeat against Coolera/Strandhill still strikes a nerve.
“It was a huge disappointment and there is no point saying otherwise. We lost, so the obvious conclusion is we didn’t play well. But the real analysis of the match was that we played well, but didn’t convert.
“Everyone looks at the fact we went five up in the second half. But, for me, looking back on it, it was lost in the first half. We had seven from 14 shots and they had five from five. We went in two points up at half time. If we had converted three more of them, we would have went in 0-10 to 0-5 up.
“We gave them oxygen and we gave them hope. We had 14 shots on goal — we had seven wides and seven scores. That for me is where we lost it personally because we left them in it.
“They kicked some unbelievable scores in fairness. Fair play to them. The reality is there are days you win and days you lose. You have to shake the other guy’s hand and say well done. But it did hurt and there is no point saying it didn’t. It hurt a lot,” he conceded.
No surprise then, that it has taken Pearses some time to hit their straps this season.
“We lost the first game against Faithleach’s, and everyone thought we were finished. Then we had Clann here at home in Woodmount and we got over that. Against Dominic’s, we also got there.
“Then everyone said we were very lucky against Boyle after beating Oran, which also took extra time. I’ve heard people commenting that Boyle left it behind them.
“We had the win against St. Faithleach’s in the semi-final. You could call the season a slow burner. We are moving in the right direction, but we have a lot of work to do.”
While Pearses are improving, Canning contends that this group of players is winning matches that they may have lost in previous years.
“There is an old saying that the harder you work, the luckier you get. Any lad who is successful in life is working hard. Any lad that is successful in sport is working hard as well.”
When pressed about the ruthless nature of the performance against St. Faithleach’s in the county semi-final when, arguably, Pearses played like champions, Canning is quick to turn the dial towards the future.
“It’s nice to say that but it is only a semi-final. Every manager goes out expecting that and it is not just Pearses. Brigid’s expect it, Clann expect it, and Faithleach’s — if they thought they got the run on us — would expect it as well with the quality of forwards they have.
“The new rules will allow players to express themselves. If you are on the money, you can rack up scores very quickly. What I mean by that is, if the passes are going to hand and they are hitting the right areas, you can hurt teams.
“We were very happy with the semi-final, but the reality is that will be long forgotten if we don’t win the final,” he pointed out.
As for a renewal with St. Brigid’s, Canning isn’t unduly bothered that there will be green and red jerseys in the opposition’s corner next Sunday. For him, he returns to the club and building on the feelgood factor that permeates through Pádraig Pearses.
“We don’t care who we play in the final. Finals are for winning. That is the simple reality of it.
“Of course, everyone is saying you would like to beat Brigid’s or Clann. Pádraig Pearses are trying to make their own history and get up there with the rest of them, and we are battling to do that,” he concluded.
