Galway footballers hitting form at right time says Padraic Joyce

GALWAY senior football manager Padraic Joyce was pleased with his side’s performance in their three point win over Westmeath in round two of the All-Ireland Championship.

Joyce was impressed with his team’s second half performance up until the last five minutes. Galway were in a strong position leading 3-20 to 1-17 on 65 minutes, but two pointers courtesy of Robbie Forde and Sam McCartan along with a goal from substitute Jack Duncan brought Westmeath right back into the contest coming down the stretch.

“You can say that, but they’re a really good side Westmeath. We knew they were going to have a little bit of a purple patch here and there. We probably were a bit of a downfall to ourselves, but the last goal they got there, sure in fairness, your man took about 15 steps before he passed the ball. How it stood, I don’t know. It was a couple of calls like that, but we were happy enough in the end to come out of it. It was a real tight battle,” Joyce told Tribune Sport.

“It was championship pace out there. We played some great football in the second half there, controlled the game a lot. I think when we rushed our shots a little bit, we probably were under a bit of pressure, kicking under pressure, and obviously since it was the end of the first half, we were trying to hit a couple of two's with the wind and they weren't really on.

"They were just panicky shots really. I don't know why, it's not like us, but we regrouped well at half-time, and I thought our second half performance up to the last three or four minutes was superb.”

The Galway manager believes the biggest positive from his side’s championship campaign so far is that players are hitting from at the right time and injuries are starting to clear up.

“I think the biggest positive for us is that lads are coming into a bit of form at probably the right time of the year. Let’s hope we can maintain that and keep it going. We haven’t a whole pile on the physio table, which is great,” added Joyce.

Matthew Thompson remains the only absentee through injury and Galway will hope to have the 2025 All-Star nominee available for the All-Ireland quarter-final. Joyce also noted that one aspect Galway have focused on is applying pressure to the opposition’s kickouts.

Meanwhile, Cian D’Arcy was named Man of the Match following Galway’s victory over Westmeath. The Ballyboden St Enda’s player caused significant difficulties for the opposition with his aerial presence, and Joyce revealed that D’Arcy had been carrying a knock heading into the game.

“He was brilliant. Outstanding in fairness to him. His work-rate, his effort was superb. He hasn't trained since the Kildare match, a bit of an injury. I've seen stats there, he contested, I think, eight out of nine kickouts. He won eight out of nine he contested.

“Three tackles and kicked two scores. Really, really good, good performance. As were Mattie [Tierney] and Paul Conroy as well, who was immense on the ball. Really, really good out there. When we wanted players to stand up and catch the ball, Céin did it at times, Mattie Tierney did it, Damien did it. So, that's a great aspect to have in a team”.

Shane McGrath, Kieran Molloy, Daniel O’Flaherty and Damien Comer all made significant impacts off the bench in Galway’s win over Westmeath.

“When Kieran Molloy came on in the first half as the blood sub, he punched a point. Shane McGrath had a big impact as well, he came into today with a bit of an injury in training on Thursday night, so he couldn't start, but he came on and he played really, really well. Danny O’Flaherty kicked a score for us. Damien was good as usual as well, so yeah, when the bench is impacting like that, it's quite good,” concluded Joyce.