Galway senior football manager Padraic Joyce wants to rule West again
For Pádraic Joyce, these are the days he truly relishes.
The Galway manager cut a relaxed figure when speaking to the media at a media briefing ahead of Sunday’s Connacht Final against Roscommon at Hyde Park.
The Killererin clubman has never shied away from expressing his love for the provincial championships as even amidst ever changing structures within the All Ireland series, his fundamental belief that winning a Connacht title sets a team up well for the year ahead remains.
Despite Galway’s outstanding record in Dr Hyde Park – they haven’t lost a championship game there since 1990 – Joyce is still expecting his troops to encounter a difficult battle.
“There is an old saying; you get nothing soft in the Hyde. Loads of full-backs over the years told me that from Roscommon as well, when you go down there as a young lad.
"There is always a great atmosphere in the Hyde. I love going down, it's a fabulous surface and pitch down there. It's nice playing in it, at least I used to enjoy going down there and playing on it. You are testing yourself against real physicality, you are going to get bumped off the ball, you are going to get real physicality, but within the rules.
“I have massive memories over the years, playing in Roscommon. They have had some brilliant teams, and even on Sunday, they have the 25-year anniversary for the team that won in ‘01.
"A lot of them fellas, I still meet some of them, and poor Don Connellan is not with us anymore. You remember all that stuff, so life moves on. When you're playing them at the time, you're huge rivals, but when you get older and a bit wiser, you appreciate how good that team was back in ‘01.”
Despite Matthew Thompson picking up an ankle injury while in America, Galway’s injuries are clearing up. Matthew Tierney and Cian Hernon are back in training according to Joyce while getting game time into the likes of Shane Walsh, Damien Comer, Cillian McDaid, Seán Kelly and John Daly is invaluable for the campaign ahead.
Joyce admits the return of these big hitters is a sizeable boost ahead as his side aim to secure a five in a row of provincial titles.
“It just adds for huge competition. And the players will tell you themselves, if you're performing in training, you will be playing in the matches. That's the way it's always been with me. But I think it's great as well for the younger players to see the way these lads train. They are brilliant lads, the way they train, the character of them is huge.
“I've always said that, they have never not given their all for Galway. We get criticism as a group and sometimes rightly so, but I think people criticise players sometimes and they don't see the effort they put in between the Monday and the Sunday before they go playing.
"They are a credit to their clubs and, for me, it's just a privilege to be looking after them,” added Joyce, who was so influential as a player in Galway’s last two All-Ireland triumphs in 1998 and 2001.
Only once before have the Tribesmen claimed five Connacht titles on the trot (1956 to ‘60), but Joyce and his team are now only 70 minutes from emulating that feat and confirming their status as the top dogs out west.