Joe Canning is adamant that Galway can bounce back from the disappointment of relegation to put together a strong championship bid.

The 2016 season got off to the worst possible start for last year's beaten All-Ireland finalists when they surrendered their Division 1A status but their talismanic attacker sees no reason why they can't kick on in the Liam MacCarthy Cup race:

"We are just concentrating now on what we can do in the future. Training has been going well, we started a lot later than most other counties and we are probably two to three months behind other counties back training," the Portumna clubman told The Irish Independent.

"It was disappointing to finish with four points and then be relegated for next season but we can't worry about it now, that's for next season. We weren't too far off last year. We were a couple of points up at half time [in the All-Ireland final] and I suppose our game management in the second half was not good enough. It was just frustrating on that point of view that we were so close and just didn't get over the finish line

"Last year Dublin should probably have beaten us in the first match in Croke Park. We didn't perform in the Leinster final, the game against Tipperary could have gone either way, it was that nip and tuck and other years we just didn't have the luck I suppose to get over the line. We just got it against Tipperary in the semi-final.

"So we were lucky in a way last year as well, getting to the All-Ireland the way we did. It is all so tight, there are such fine margins at this level now that when you win people tend to forget the things you did bad.

"We have a young enough team. I'm one of the oldest on it now at 27 so a lot of the guys are very young, 22 or 23 years of age, they have got good experience over the last number of years so hopefully this year will be good for them as well."

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