Canning and Cooney head the poll of Galway’s hurling greats

FROM Galway to Dublin, Cork to Belfast and from further afield – the UK, United States and Australia – Connacht & City Tribune readers and social media followers voted in their hundreds to select Galway’s Greatest All-Stars Hurling XV (1963 to present).

There was an incredible response to our bid to establish Galway’s Greatest All-Stars and, although sport may be on lockdown at present, it did not dampen the passion and enthusiasm of hurling supporters of the maroon and white.

As the emails poured in, it was great to see some readers breakdown the thought process behind their selections and outline the agonising lengths they went to in finalising their final fifteen. This was reflected in the voting.

Only one player – Joe Canning – appeared on every single selection and, yet, even with his votes divided between centre-half forward, full-forward and corner forward, the Galway public were in no doubt that Canning has been the best full-forward the county has produced in the last fifty years.

In this respect, Noel Lane – a member of The Connacht Tribune’s Team of the Century in 1999 – was unlucky to lose out. With Lane also receiving a solid vote in the left-half forward position, his omission from this XV is sure to cause much debate.

Along with Canning, the equally great Joe Cooney polled extremely high, appearing in all bar four selections. Of the votes he received, 65% put Cooney in the centre-half forward position – finishing some way ahead of Canning – with the rest of his vote distributed to the left half forward berth.

The late Tony Keady also commanded a huge vote, as did those in the wing-back berths, Pete Finnerty and Iggy Clarke. Those three appeared in over 90% of selections. Also to poll strongly were the midfield partnership of John Connolly and 2017 All-Ireland winning captain David Burke – each getting over 80% of the votes – while Ollie Canning and Daithí Burke featured prominently as well.

Indeed, Daithí Burke had just two votes to spare over former All-Ireland winning captain Conor Hayes when it came to the full-back position, although Burke did receive an additionally healthy vote in the left corner back position. This meant, in all, he appeared in almost 70% of the selections submitted.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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