After a yearlong absence from the inter-county hurling scene, Ollie Canning is set to make a return to the Galway Senior Hurling team in search of that elusive All-Ireland title.

Originally from Portumna, hurling has always been in Ollie Canning's blood. Showing great aptitude for the sport from a young age, he played with his local underage teams before moving to Dublin to study mechanical engineering in DIT. He then began a successful term playing with the college team, going so far as to win a Fitzgibbon title.

In 1990, Ollie's hard work and dedication paid off and he was picked to join the Galway minor panel. He played his first All-Ireland Final in 1993 but it was to be a bittersweet occasion, as Galway were defeated by Kilkenny. However the team showed their spirit and determination by retuning to claim the title the following year.

Since then, hurling has played a key role in Ollie's life, with much of his time devoted to training with his club Portumna as well as his county. In 1996, he was called up to the Galway senior team and over the years established a reputation as one of the key players in the squad. Following a successful career in which he was awarded three All-Star awards, Ollie caused huge shock among Galway's hurling community when he announced he would retire from inter-county hurling following the team's exit from the 2006 championship.

However, after an extended break and a successful championship campaign with Portumna, Ollie recently decided to return to the senior panel and is looking forward to the challenge.

"Winning an All-Ireland Final for any team is a huge achievement but when you do it with your club, it really is something special. To have your family and friends and all the local people in Portumna there to support you and then, if you are successful, to celebrate afterwards, well, that's really what it's all about. As for the two in a row, who knows? If you work hard enough and have the correct attitude, anything is possible.

"I think the main reason I decided to come back was probably the fact that I have a lot of work done with Portumna already this year and being injury free for the last year has been a huge help also. Ya, it's going to be a huge challenge to get back to the pace of senior inter-county hurling but still a challenge I'm looking forward to. I'm really looking forward to playing with my brother Joe, who has been called up the senior team, so hopefully it will be a long summer," he says.

This will be Ollie's first time training under the leadership of Ger Loughnane, who took over the position of manager in late 2006. The veteran hurler reckons that the new management have now found their feet and will be a force to be reckoned with this year.

"It probably took the new management team a while to find their feet and get to know the players. Progress has been made this year by getting to the league final. It's going to be different as it always is when you haven't worked with someone before. I'll be interested to see his methods in training and tactics in a match situation etc. as these things now play a huge part in today's game."

Returning to the inter-county scene will be a tough obstacle for Ollie, who says that the speed of county hurling is much faster than what he has gotten used to at club level. However, he is looking forward to working hard and seeing the benefits when Galway challenge for the All-Ireland later this year.