IT WOULD be an irony were Cork finally to secure the Holy Grail of All-Ireland success without the presence of their captain and hardiest warrior. Graham Canty’s demeanour isn’t that of a spiritual leader but that’s the short-hand description of his influence on a team that has battled adversity and regrouped on an almost annual basis.

But now, just 70 minutes away, perhaps, from the county’s first Sam Maguire in 20 years, the focus for Canty – and the rest of the county – is the extent to which he can recover from the hamstring problem that has disrupted his year to date, all but wiping out his early season, forcing his withdrawal against Roscommon and Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter- and semi-finals and threatening his participation in a third final in four years.

“That’s the way it goes,” he says. “I’ve managed to play four or five championship games so that’s not too bad of a run either. That’s just me. The team as a whole has progressed fairly well and you’d be happy with that.”

The anxiety index in Kilkenny in the run-up to the hurling final, as speculation buzzed about Henry Shefflin’s fitness, may have been more insistent, but the loss of Canty would be every bit as serious for the Cork footballers.

We’ll all know tonight to what extent manager Conor Counihan is satisfied with his captain’s readiness for action, but the player himself was sanguine enough.

“Going into an All-Ireland final you’d like to have more work done on the pitch. Injury-wise, I’ll be fine; it’s just the sharpness you’d like to be better. It’s not ideal preparation, but you have what you have at this stage. If you’d asked me at the beginning of October last year would I take being back in an All-Ireland final, but lacking a bit of sharpness, I would have jumped at it.”

Throughout a career that stretches back 10 years and pre-dates the current championship system, Canty has been identified as an increasingly central personality on 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.

There has always been a sense of captivity about his being played at full back, a sympathy that he and ultimately the team prosper more conspicuously when he gets the opportunity to harness his athleticism and launch those raiding counter-attacks, which were such a feature of his performances last year.

This season, the emphasis has again been more conservative, featuring two specialist marking jobs on Kieran Donaghy in the Kerry matches, but duty farther out during the qualifiers.

“Every time you go out as a defender – usually I’m playing on the half-back line at wing back or centre back – you’ve a job to do, either man-marking a player or maybe playing more of a dropping-off role and trying to help out the midfield or cover back in front of the full-back line.

“It varies from game to game. You’re given a role and you try to carry it out to the best of your ability.”

In keeping with the apparently agreed line, the captain is unfazed by the novelty of Sunday’s opposition and quick to talk up the team that almost nonchalantly removed Kerry from the AllIreland series. He refuses even to acknowledge the surprise factor.

“We’re playing a very good team with good form, some outstanding players and a blend of experience and youth. They’re not really an unknown quantity. They may have played Division Two football this year, but so did we last season and still managed to do well enough in the championship.

“McCartan has built up a very good Down side. He has Martin Clarke coming back from life as a professional in Australia and the value of that experience can’t be over-estimated.”

Mention of Australia brings to mind next month’s International Rules series and the public will be glad to hear the outstanding Ireland player of his generation sounds happy to make himself available, injury permitting, although he declines to go into any detail while still on the championship agenda.

“You’d hope to get an opportunity for a trial, but it’s not something you’re thinking about until Cork are finished.

“I’ve been playing it for a number of years and I really, really enjoy it.”

Graham Canty on . . .
. . . the idea of using video technology to adjudicate scores?
"I'd like to see it brought in. I don't see anything wrong with introducing something that would make life easier for officials. The pitch is very big and there's 30 players and the referee can't be expected to see everything."

. . . the qualifiers. Are they a better route to take?
"I don't know. We went through the front door last year and came into the All-Ireland final with good form. This time we've had four or five matches. I don't think it makes a huge difference but it probably focuses you earlier."

. . . the turning point in Cork's season?
"We went out with Kerry and fought tooth and nail over two days to win a Munster title, but lost. The fact that everything from then on is knockout and you could be gone from the championship if you lose concentrates the mind."