Kids there were because Sean met Josephine Lynch in the dancehall in Kiltormer sometime during the swingin' decade and married her in 1969. This other great match of Sean's life produced Seamus (37 next October), Deirdre, Frank, Davy, Ollie, Ivan and Joe (18 next October). All of them have hurled, or in Deirdre's case camogied, for Galway at one level or another. The last time that Ollie and Joe did so at Croke Park on the same afternoon, Sean was busy giving the other family members a hell of a scare. But we'll get to that later. For the moment, suffice to say that with four sons wearing the yellow and blue and another among the subs, there won't be a prouder couple in the place in five days' time than the parents Canning.

Sean was the mentor and the inspiration when the boys were younger. His offspring still aren't sure quite how he managed it, yet on those occasions that hurling and farming clashed, hurling came first;

as many of them as possible would always be despatched to the match. Hence a childhood of trips to Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Athenry to see their uncles . . . Josephine's brothers . . . hurl with Kiltormer or their dad hurl for Portumna. Hence all the games in the field at home that matched Seamus and Ollie against Frank and Davy, the oldest and youngest against the two in the middle. Needless to say, it usually ended in a row. When Ivan came along, naturally they stuck him in goal. Ivan will be lining out between the sticks next Friday. Those two facts are not unconnected.

Davy, man of the match in last month's All Ireland semifinal clash with James Stephens, will again start at wing-forward. Pound for pound he might just be the best of the family, a 1993 All Ireland under-21 winning corner-back who subsequently became snagged in the bottleneck of Galway's overloaded production line. More recently you might have seen him on The Underdogs. An eyeopening experience.

"It's great to have done it, but it took an awful lot of time and a fair old commitment.

You were missing work, you were away from home for days at a time and you weren't getting a bob." On the plus side, Davy made "a good few friends", a number of whom have texted him in the last week or two to wish him the best for St Patrick's Day. He can expect more texts in the next few days.

The first time the Cannings reckoned Ollie, the next sibling in line and Galway's hurler of the decade to date, might be the best of them up to then was when he figured on the Galway under-14 team.

The family weren't surprised he made the team. They were surprised he made it at centre-back. Centre-backs at that age are selected for their size;

Ollie was selected for his hurling. The big thing about Ollie, his brothers assert, is his speed. "You could say we all had hurling, " Frank says. "But Ollie has great speed."

As for Joe, they suspected there was something special about him a long time ago.

Leaving the house at 7am to go to work in Limerick in the early 1990s, Frank would encounter Joe toddling downstairs to watch Portumna matches on the video, over and over again. Joe was three years old at the time.

Now he's 17 and the most talked-about prodigy this side of WA Mozart. Frank and Davy and Ivan used to be Ollie's brothers; these days they're discovering they're Joe's brothers. Try to create the complete Canning hurler and he'd have Seamus's determination, Deirdre's toughness, Frank's accuracy, Davy's consistency, Ollie's class and Ivan's eye for the ball. The complete Canning hurler may yet turn out to be the baby of the family.

Unsurprisingly, they're conscious that Joe needs to be looked after. Too many young men with a great future in front of them quickly become slightly older young men with a great future behind them.

"Joe doesn't go for the limelight, he shies away from it, " Seamus asserts. "That's a comfort. We're conscious that he has nearly too high a profile. But he won't lose the run of himself. Hopefully."

Joe picked up his second All Ireland minor medal six months ago on a day of mixed Canning emotions at Croke Park. Very mixed, very emotional. That one brother finished a winner and the other a loser was only the half of it.

Sean Canning, never one for hiding his pre-match nerves, complained during the morning that he wasn't feeling well. His brood teased him and thought no more of it.

But the pain worsened, so much so that 10 minutes from the end of the minor match Sean stood up, left his seat alongside Josephine, Deirdre, Seamus and Davy in the Hogan Stand and went out to seek medical attention. The Croke Park medical staff treated him immediately and had him whisked to the Mater Hospital. He'd only just arrived when he suffered a heart attack. Over in the Cusack Stand, with mobile phone coverage down, Frank and Ivan didn't learn of the drama till they were leaving after the senior final. Within the hour, Ollie was down in the Mater at his father's side. He'd lost a final. Domino Gloria, he hadn't lost a father.

"It was only a match, although that didn't take away Ollie's disappointment, " according to Frank. "But I think Dad was nearly more disappointed for Ollie than Ollie was for himself." The man in the right place at the right time, Sean had a stent fitted, has made a full recovery and will be returning to the scene of his mishap next Friday. Or, rather, the spot where the rest of his life began. Imagine had he been alone on the farm when he was taken ill, his children point out. Doesn't bear thinking about.

A sub for the James Stephens match, Frank, who's 34, was right-half forward when Portumna were defeated by Dunloy in the 2004 All Ireland semi-final in Clones.

There is, he argues, "a myth out there" that the first-time Galway champions were overconfident and didn't prepare properly for Dunloy. "We did.

But they were an experienced team. They had eight or nine of the Antrim panel. Look at what Ballygalget nearly did to Newtownshandrum. Any Ulster club with a big number of county panellists will take beating."

Two years on, the venue for the James Stephens match was a godsend to a more experienced Portumna team.

Thurles, unlike Clones, was only an hour away; the surface, again unlike Clones's sand, was a hurling surface; and the pampas of Semple Stadium gave Damien Hayes et al ample room to deploy their speed. Davy Canning was man of the match, Ivan did his job with a sharp save on the toot of half-time and Joe hit 1-7, one of the points a memorable, sugar-spun lineball from under the old stand. Job done.

Family honour franked.

It's only now that they're married that the elder Canning children realise the amount of time they put into the hurling in the first place.

"You're going hurling again, " their spouses will announce in wonderment, prompting the lads to pause and consider.

They never thought about it in those terms before. Obviously, Frank muses, they'd have filled the void with something else if they hadn't had hurling in their lives. He has no doubt that Joe, a fine place-kicking out-half or full-back, and Ollie would have been successful at some other sport. "The rest of us, I'm not so sure."

The plaudits go to their parents, both of them fanatics in different ways. "Dad brought us up to be clubmen. Not individuals. The club was always the focus. Anything after that was a bonus. Stuff like Ollie's All Stars are the trimmings."

Josephine, on the other hand, can claim the credit for Joe.

"Mam brought him everywhere. With him being the youngest, she wasn't leaving anyone behind. Up to last summer, she'd bring him to county minor training every second night. Just a fact of life. It happens without you thinking about it."

The next generation is on its way. There are 10 Canning grandchildren, six of them boys. Among them is Sean junior, two years old and the son of Frank and Fiona, who live near Ballinasloe on the far side of the border with Roscommon. The minute Sean shows the slightest promise at hurling, Fiona, a Roscommon woman, has been firmly warned, they'll be moving back to Portumna.

We are family.

ALL IRELAND CLUB SHC FINAL NEWTOWNSHANDRUM (Cork) v PORTUMNA (Galway) Croke Park, Friday, 2.00 Referee B Gavin (Offaly) Live, TG4, 1.45

The semi-final against Ballygalget was, we announced here beforehand, a game Newtownshandrum needed for their own sake to win wisely but not too well. Mission accomplished on that score, and in the event there was no 'too well' about it. But shake the kaleidoscope. Portumna won their semi by a street. Newtown won theirs by a nose. In whose carriage would readers prefer to be travelling to the final?

On the grounds of injuries, probably not Newtown's. Paul Morrissey, last year's Cork subgoalie, will be "t for the fray but both Donal Mulcahy and Gerdie O'Mahony are rated as doubtful, the one a big man on the 40, the other a bulwark in the full-back line. And you don't want your full-back line to be short on bulwarks when Portumna are the opposition; the ponderous James Stephens equivalent was comprehensively gutted in Thurles last month. One ploy for Newtown to be wise to is Joe Canning's habit of taking a walk out the "eld and leaving space behind in an undermanned full-back line for Damien Hayes to revel in.

Another item presumably high on Newtown's to-do list is a good start. They walked out of the traps against Thurles Sars"elds, Ballygunner and Ballygalget. Here they'll need to hammer away at Portumna from the off. The latter's defending was dodgy at times during the Galway championship, but the resiting of Ollie Canning and his anticipation of and nippiness to the breakdown provides an additional layer of security.

Newtown have Ben and Jerry; Portumna have Hayes and Andy Smith. Newtown have the experience; Portumna have the momentum. There has to be a doubt about Newtown's ability to up it two gears on cue; there shouldn't be a question over Portumna's ability to keep her goin'. All in all, they look the team Newtown were two years ago.

Verdict Portumna Probable teams

NEWTOWNSHANDRUM P Morrissey; AN Other, B Mulcahy, D Gleeson; A O'Brien, P Mulcahy, P Noonan; M Farrell, Jerry O'Connor; JP King, AN Other, C Naughton; John O'Connor, J Bowles, B O'Connor.

PORTUMNA I Canning; M Gill, E McEntee, O Canning; G Heagney, M Ryan, A O'Donnell; L Smith, E Lynch; D Canning, K Hayes, A Smith; D Hayes, N Hayes, J Canning.