“He’s been an absolute legend of a player.”
It will be a bittersweet accolade for Galway’s Joe Canning as his side crash out of the championship following a tight game to Waterford that saw them lose by a four points.
Waterford were 16 points up at one stage, but Galway rallied together and although the 0-9 from Canning couldn’t complete the comeback, it did create a little bit of history.
The Portumna man overtakes Henry Shefflin as the championship’s all-time top-scorer.
The full-forward finishes his 14th championship campaign with a career total of 27-485 – a truly astonishing feat.
The 2017 Hurler of The Year, will be more concerned with his team’s defeat rather than personal milestones, but his brother, Ollie Canning, was in studio after the game, and summed up his achievement.
“It’s an unbelievable achievement, Joe was not tapping that over, he was trying to find the top of the net there,” he added, when talking about the point that broke the record.
“For me, he is the ultimate team player. He had a chance from a free earlier, he hit it short to Evan Niland for a score. He could have taken that on himself.
“He found Jason Flynn in that pocket [for Flynn’s goal], he wasn’t thinking about that kind of stuff. It’s nice to get it, and fair play to him.
“He’s been an absolute legend of a player in the game. The ultimate team player, for me. The ultimate finisher.
I’m not sure how long he’s got left! But a great, great player. We see a few of them players in our lifetime, and he’s up there with the best.”
