Joe Canning has no regrets about waiting until this year to make his services available to the Galway senior hurling management. Still only 19 and regarded as the best young hurling talent in the country, Canning was first invited to join the senior squad two years ago by former manager Conor Hayes, but felt he had enough on his plate with his minor, under 21 and club commitments. But after helping Portumna to their second All-Ireland club success in three years on St. Patrick's Day, Canning finally made the step-up to the senior squad and all eyes will be on him today as he makes his eagerly-awaited senior championship debut against Antrim in Belfast. "Looking at it now, I'm coming in and I'm fresh. I'm not tired and sick of it. I love it. I wouldn't wish for anything else," he said. Defending his decision not to throw his lot in with the seniors last year, Canning said: "People say I got a break last year, that I relaxed for the summer, but I didn't. I know I got maybe two or three holidays out of it, but altogether that was about two weeks. That's not a lot for anybody. "I was still involved at U21 and that went on until the week after the senior final!'' Since losing the National League final to Tipperary in April, Galway have had a low-key build-up to the championship and the young attacker believes this has suited them. "Every county would like that," he added. "We're only looking forward to Antrim, not beyond it. It's D-day for us. Our season could end up if we got Cork or Waterford in the next round. If we win we might get an easier path, but there's no easy path I suppose because this year a few big guns were knocked out early on." Tweet

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