IN A career that now stretches to nine seasons, Graham Canty has established himself as a contender for the team no one wants to join. Having played on Cork teams for virtually a decade he has a claim on being one of the great players not to have won an All-Ireland.
More frustratingly, it’s not as if he’s from one of those counties whose jersey you can only wear in Croke Park by applying Photoshop technology, but one which has reached the last five All-Ireland semi-finals – and six this decade.
Two years ago they reached the final, but lost heavily and whereas the problems stemmed from defensive meltdown, Canty had done enough to earn an All Star.
“We’ve done all right in Croke Park. People are maybe reading too much into it – that this Cork team doesn’t perform in Croke Park. I certainly never thought of it, any time we’ve gone up we’ve looked forward to it.”
His protestations are valid, as you have to go back five years to find the last time he played on a Cork team beaten in Croke Park by anyone else but Kerry. It is a strikingly good record but hardly a source of comfort given the identity of Sunday’s opponents.
This season the power-house performances in Munster have continued unabated in the All-Ireland series, thrashing Donegal and in the team’s first grade A scalping, driving champions Tyrone into submission.
Despite this, Canty doesn’t exactly glow with satisfaction when the semi-final is mentioned: “It was okay, but it’s nothing huge, nothing monumental. If you lose an All-Ireland final who cares who you beat in a semi-final? Go back the years and who played in semi-finals, no one remembers that. It will count for nothing.”
His performances to date have placed him in line for Footballer of the Year. In a career that has resembled in ways that of Kerry’s great Séamus Moynihan, Canty has found himself imprisoned in the full-back line for want of better options available to the county but under Conor Counihan he has been liberated into the half backs.
Throughout his career he has been identified as the central personality in the football panel and has played down the spine from centrefield to full back and back to centre back, taking in specialist marking detours to the corner and wings along the way.
In the semi-final he started on Tyrone’s roving Joe McMahon, which allowed him play a significant role in Cork’s attacking plays, including the break that led to the match’s only goal.
This weekend he’s likely to face a familiar adversary. “According to the semi-final it will probably be Tadhg Kennelly,” he says, “I’m sure they won’t be worried who’ll be marking who as forwards. As a defender, we’ll have to react more to forwards.”
According to the Kerry team which was announced last night, Canty can expect to be marking Declan O’Sullivan on Sunday, with Kennelly named on the left wing.
Kennelly’s wonderful career in the AFL included representing Ireland in international rules, an arena where Canty gained huge prominence. He captained his country in the 2003 series in Australia and has been his generation’s outstanding international player.
Now he’s captaining his county on the biggest national stage, a responsibility that you wouldn’t expect to faze him and he’s quick to credit both the few players more experienced than him and the recent influx of youthful talent.
“I don’t approach anything differently. There are players on this team playing for Cork longer than me and probably bring more leadership than I’d ever bring. You do what you can to help the younger lads but a lot of the younger lads have their own experience, whether it’s a Sigerson victory with CIT or maybe an under-21 All-Ireland final or title.
“They are coming into it with their own experience. The intensity, the hunger they have for the game. You can feed off them, it works both ways.”
Graham Canty
Club:Bantry Blues.
Age:29.
Occupation:Engineer.
Height:6ft 1in.
Weight:13st 9lb.
Honours: Munster SFC (2002, ’06, ’08 and ’09), NFL (Division Two 2009), All Star 2007.
