It’s all a bit mental in today’s Hospital Pass as we consider Galway’s fragile minds and the Kerryman who’s started the mind games ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland football semi-final against Mayo.
When it comes to hurling, Joe Canning is one of JOE’s favourite Joes. Okay, we’ve heard Joe Errity on the wireless this summer and he talks a lot of sense, and we have great admiration for the way Joe Dooley stood up to Saruman and the rest of the boys in Offaly County Board.
But Joe Canning can do things like this. He’s all class. Despite being potty-trained only a year or two ago he’s well on his way to greatness, and like all greats it seems he’s afflicted by an Achilles heel. With Eric Cantona it was craziness; with George Best it was his penchant for the juice; with Achilles it was his heel.
And with Joe Canning, it appears it’s his mind that’s the problem. And not just his problem, but the problem of every Galway hurler who’s bagged underage All-Ireland medals only to be struck down by an inferiority complex in adulthood.
“It’s definitely not a talent problem,” Joe told the Irish Examiner. “We’ve all won All-Irelands at underage level. I think it was a mental thing more than anything against Waterford. It won’t be easy to fix.
“We know on the day we didn’t turn up. If you look at it, they were in exactly the same position as we were going into the Clare game.
“Everybody was writing them off, not giving them a chance, and saying they were useless. That’s a great motivation factor going into a match.”
Kerry playing tricks
If Galway might be of fragile mind then there’s no denying it’s something that has afflicted their Connacht neighbours Mayo in the past.
The county has produced several fine teams but they’ve lost five All-Ireland finals since they last won one, all the way back in 1951.
James Horan’s class of 2011 have plenty going for them – they lowered the colours of All-Ireland champions Cork last time out, have conceded a paltry four points in the last three second halves they’ve played and have no distractions from bleach-blond showboating forwards this time around – but they still go into this weekend’s game as rank outsiders.
Teams can cause one upset, but never two in a row, right? Wrong, according to former Kerry captain and part-time mind games enthusiast Liam Hassett, who was part of the last Kerry team to lose to Mayo 15 years ago.
“This is the best chance Mayo have of beating Kerry since 1996,” he said, also in the Examiner. “We weren’t expecting them to do it back then but that won’t be the same now. They haven’t delivered in finals, but their record in semi-finals is very good.”
