‘The top six inches are what matter in a county final’ — Canning

Frank Canning has been immersed in the successful annals of Portumna hurling — leading the Galway club to its last All-Ireland title in 2014. He also played on the team that won the club’s first Galway hurling crown 11 years earlier.

But having moved to South Roscommon 23 years ago, he admits that he’s “firmly a Pearses man at this stage.” The Canning family has always been synonymous with excellence and success. On the weekend that Pearses dethroned St. Brigid’s in the county quarter-final, Frank’s father Seán was at home “chuffed” watching the game on TG4. Later that evening, five Cannings — two brothers and three nephews — lined out for Portumna in the Galway Senior Hurling Championship.

“It was good for Dad but, ultimately, it’s only good for us when we win,” laughed Frank.

With his sons Seán and Eoin very much part of the Pearses set-up and his daughter Katie one of the key players on the club’s U-14 girls’ team that reached the county final against Four Roads a few weeks ago, the home of the 2021 Roscommon and Connacht club champions fits the bill of a club he’s delighted to be immersed in.

“My kids have grown up here. I’m only giving a small bit back to the club I’m involved with now.

“I was reared in a hurling house, but it was a GAA house. The club was number one. If you made the county, you were lucky enough.

“As a family, we were lucky with some of the guys. We’d always maintained at home that a real good clubman would make a good county player. If we wasn’t a good clubman, he’d eventually let the county down,” stressed Canning when pressed about the importance of the GAA club in a local community.

Now in his second year at the helm in charge of the Pearses senior footballers, he knows that the physical work needed to help the club try to win its third Fahey Cup is done. Whether Pearses prevail on Sunday will be down to their mentality.

“We’re just hoping that we’ll be mentally right on the day. The top six inches are what it’s all about on the day of a county final.

“The likes of the Dalys, Emmett Kelly, Davy Murray, Niall Carty, Gavin Downey and Paul Whelan are going to be very important in a game like this. You’d be hoping they’d bring their experience to the table for the younger lads. We had seven younger lads that started the semi-final, so we’d like to think that we have a good mix.

“We felt last year that we probably didn’t give the young lads enough of a chance. They’re a big help this year, and they’re a year older as well. Out of a panel of 35 players, 16 of them are 23 or younger. Out of those 16, around ten of them have played championship already.

“We got a new strength and conditioning coach, Colin Donoghue, which is a help. Our fitness levels are good this year. We just changed up one or two bits to try and get it right, but we’ve nothing won yet,” he pointed out.

Pádraig Pearses is the envy of many clubs across the county with its adult teams competing in the senior and intermediate leagues. But with such a large cohort of intercounty players, that brings its own challenges, despite the club’s perceived large population base.

“It’s brilliant for the club in one sense. But you can have a match on a Saturday and a Sunday, or a Friday and a Saturday. So it can be quite difficult as well as you have maybe half your players playing two matches over the course of a weekend. There’s a pluses and minuses in it.

“We approached both leagues this year with the intention of staying up. We never thought about winning them. We just wanted both teams to maintain their respective status,” he outlined.

Billed as the “Group of Death” Pearses found themselves in shark-infested waters alongside Clann na nGael, St. Dominic’s and Boyle in the group stages of this year’s championship. Clann’s smash and grab raid in the opening round didn’t unduly derail them. There was enough experience in the dressing room to quickly get that loss out of the system.

“It was a tough group but to get to a county final, those are the type of matches you need. Definitely, the Clann match, as a starter, was juicy enough for everyone. We obviously had Dominic’s and Boyle after that. None of them were easy.

“But you can’t beat experience. It is a help that we have those experienced players that I mentioned who have won county and Connacht finals. They’re probably a bigger help to the younger lads than me.

“I remember saying to Davy (Murray) one day that his advice to a young fella how to defend is a lot more important than me telling the same young fella. From that point of view, it’s the older lads that drive it on.” Making the transition to football from hurling also poses its challenges, especially when the house of cards can come tumbling down in a football match, despite laying a platform for victory.

“Both games are very similar in a lot of ways. The hardest thing I find is that football can be very frustrating. The best team doesn’t always win in football whereas, nine times out of ten in hurling, if you’re on top, you can score from 60 or 70 yards and overcome a packed defence.

“With football, you need the rub of the green a lot more. But, at the same time, it’s sport. Mentally preparing guys, that’s the joy of it. The joy for me is seeing the players doing well. I walk away at the end of the day. I’m not looking to move into anything bigger. Pearses is big enough for me.

“I find them (football and hurling) hard to compare. No matter if it’s football, hurling, camogie or ladies’ football, the same rules apply when it comes to organisation. You get a group of people together, get them motivated and self-motivated. You don’t need the manager roaring and shouting. The players have to take responsibility. That’s the nice part of management — that the players drive it, not someone like me,” he highlighted.

And what about the team lying in the long grass ahead of Sunday’s rematch of the 2019 county final?

“Roscommon Gaels will bring the same as ourselves. It’s going to be a 50/50 game. They have a mix of youth and experience as well. It’s whoever wants it most on the day. As I said, it’s about the top six inches. Who’s going to be ready for it?

“It’s the toss of a coin between the two of us. Anyone who thinks otherwise is only fooling themselves. The Gaels had an outstanding semi-final victory. The scoreboard will testify that they’re good in front of goal, so we’ll be up against it,” he predicted.

Rest assured that under Frank Canning’s watchful eye, however, Pearses will be ready.