Mr Mean ready to shut up shop
Cork full-back Graham Canty signals for attention after suffering a knee injury during last year's Munster final replay.
WHEN Graham Canty's knee buckled underneath him during last year's Munster final replay against Kerry, it was as if the rafters supporting Cork's All-Ireland ambitions snapped.
Cork won the game and put on the bravest of faces as they headed for Croke Park, but deep down they knew they were carrying an intolerable load without their stricken full-back, who had suffered cruciate ligament damage.
Derek Kavanagh improvised as best he could, but he always looked like a midfielder on emergency duty around the square.
Convincing
Canty's absence had an immediate impact. Whereas Cork had conceded an average of 0-8 in the three games in which he had played, the giveaway rate increased to 1-10 against Donegal in the All-Ireland quarter-final and shot up to 0-16 in the semi-final against Kerry.
Canty's return this summer has helped to pare the average back down to 0-11 in six championship games.
Those are very convincing figures for the Canty support group, who believe that he is not only the most influential Cork player but also the best full-back in the country.
Former Cork manager, Larry Tompkins, who gave Canty his first championship start as a 20-year-old in 2000, believes that the Bantry Blue is actually better when he plays at centre-back, but circumstances have dictated that he plays at full-back.
Of course, he's not averse to an occasional switch either and not just to other central positions. Truth is that wherever opposing forwards light a fire, Canty is despatched on Red Adair duty.
It means that at some stage on Sunday he will probably find himself alternating between Kieran Donaghy and 'Gooch' Cooper, Kerry's two-handed gunslingers who can shoot down an entire defence in an instant.
Not that Canty will be perturbed by the level of responsibility loaded onto his ample shoulders. After all, he took on -- and beat -- Australian giant Barry Hall on a memorable night in the Melbourne Cricket Ground in an International Rules game in 2003, a performance which Tompkins thinks could be relevant against Donaghy.
"Canty kept breaking the ball away from Hall that night. Not only that, but he managed to get really good length into his punched clearances. He frustrated the hell out of Hall," said Tompkins. "I am sure he will be trying something similar with Donaghy if Kerry take the decision to go route one on Sunday. I can't think of anybody better equipped to do it."
Canty smiles at the Hall v Donaghy comparison.
"Kieran would be around the same size as Hall, but this is a different game to International Rules," he added.
Target
"Knocking the ball away isn't enough against this Kerry forward line because they are consistently on to the breaks like a flash."
Expanding on the Donaghy threat, he said that it would be foolish to regard the big Austin Stacks man solely as a big target beacon.
"There's a lot more to him than that. He won lots of ball, high and low, against Dublin in the semi-final and is as sharp as anybody when it comes to kicking scores. You need to mark him as you find him and not on how he played in the past."
In the fraught circumstances, Canty's presence around the square, which has released team captain Derek Kavanagh to return to midfield duty, has greatly improved Cork's all-round solidity as proven by the manner in which they squeezed the resistance out of Meath in the semi-final. Their 10-point win was by far the most emphatic during the business end of the championship so far.
However, Canty insists that further improvement is an absolute essential if Cork are to realise their dream and beat Kerry.
"We weren't that good in the final 20 minutes -- we wouldn't get away with that against Kerry because they can cause fierce damage at any time," he insisted. "The Meath performance was certainly a step up on what we had done earlier, but we have got to move up another notch now."
Like the whole of Cork, he is conscious of their failure to come anywhere close to Kerry in three clashes in Croke Park since 2002.
"It's a worrying trend but he says there's no point dwelling on what happened in the past, no more than there's anything to be gained by over-analysing Kerry's two-point win in the Munster final last July. They missed chances early on and we missed them towards the end. After all that, there were only two points between us at the finish.
"That game is gone and will have no bearing on the All-Ireland final. This is a one-off, winner-take-all and we know that we have to produce the performance of our lives to win it," he said.
Judging on his form this summer, Canty is ready for the big challenge.
Graham Canty Factfile . . .
Age: 27
Height: 6ft 1in
Weight: 14st 7lb
Club:
Bantry Blues
Occupation: Computer systems engineer
Senior
Championship debut: 2000 (sub v Limerick)
Championship games:
29 (1 as a sub)
