‘I had a lot of soul searching last July’: Pádraic Joyce on the long road to an All-Ireland final

It’s easy to buy into the myth: that just because ‘PJ’ voiced the opinion that Galway should be competing for All-Irelands, lo and behold it came to pass. The truth is at once more simple and complex.

“I was asked a simple question; what was my ambition as manager of Galway?” Pádraic Joyce said last week, sitting in a deserted Pearse Stadium and thinking back to his original declaration three years ago. Actually, it was no declaration. It was just Joyce being straight.

“And I gave an answer. That was the statement of it,” he clarified.

“It is not an unshakeable belief. I was asked a question about my ambitions as manager, I was not going to say, ‘well, I am here for the craic, I am here to win a couple of championship games and go as far as I can’”.

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“Every team does train to win the All-Ireland. They might not say it, but they do train to win the All-Ireland and I was no different. I wanted Galway to win the All-Ireland and I still do – we haven’t won anything yet. We are on a journey this year that might help us get there, we are as close as we have ever been.”

The world has been irrevocably changed since the first heady few weeks of Joyce’s time as manager, when the team took off a thousand miles an hour and were beating teams for fun in the league. Champagne stuff, etc.

Then came the pandemic, the halt and when the games resumed, Mayo ground Galway into dust in an empty Tuam Stadium, offering Joyce the chance to at least exercise the salty wit of his: he said it was a blessing there was no one in to see it. So it wasn’t as if there were no moments of doubt.

“I have had a lot of moments. You know, we have had a couple of hammerings in the league, a couple of different things over the years. Definitely the last two years were tough enough when the game was over.

“No matter what when you lose a game, the first thing you hear is that they were not fit enough and the second thing is that the manager has not got a clue, no matter what game you play and it is no different at inter-county level.

“I have had a few rough nights at it and I had a lot of soul searching last July as a group, as players and management, there is no one hiding from that. We went away, came back and talked about it and got a different formula put together. And so far it has been working, it has been great. But we need to get a result against Kerry on Sunday before the real work is done, you know.”

Galway responded to the disheartening second half of the Connacht final of 2021 nimbly. The acquisition of Cian O’Neill gave the coaching staff a new dimension and a widely admired football figure. Joyce identified Sean Kelly as the best fit for full back. The squad has chased after and built a growing defensive reputation. None of that happened overnight.

“It takes a long time. I have gone through, someone told me today, 86 or 87 players since I came in so again people might think I am ruthless dropping lads, but I have only ever dropped three fellows as far as I can remember.

“The rest have just not stayed involved or could not commit for different reasons and that is fine, you respect people for that because even going back there is only four or five of the squad involved since 2018 when we got to a semi-final.

“Since then, we have built a new squad and there is a great mix in it, there are young lads and a great mix of experience and youth in it so it is great.”

Joyce has an easy gift for accepting his place in Galway’s football heritage and wearing it very lightly. He’s approachable and direct and respectful of the past while understanding the limits of its relevance to the players he coaches now. It is circular.

Joyce was young and impatient himself when Galway won that breakthrough All-Ireland in 1998, a year recorded for posterity in Pat Comer’s marvellous film A Year Til Sunday, not so much a sports film as a social document.

“Pat Comer is involved this year with us now,” Joyce says when asked if this year’s players have seen the film.

“Some of our lads . . . I read a piece today that Damien Comer said he was only seven when we won it in 2001. Johnny McGrath and a few of these lads weren’t even born! It was a good piece. Pat is doing a few bits this year before matches and stuff. He’s a bit of crack as well. That’s video analysis. We use that to our advantage. With Pat there, it’s a bit of motivation before games. It’s great. But I don’t know, unless it’s on their phones, they won’t see it now.”

But if things work out, maybe there will be a sequel. Has he enough for a second documentary, Joyce is asked as he prepares to leave and he smiles as he departs.

“I’d say he has!”