FOR A big country stadium, McHale Park turns instantly local after the whistle blows and it took the Galway captain Padraic Joyce quite some time before he made it through the embraces of friends and neighbours to the dark tunnel leading to the dressingrooms.
Not for the first time, Joyce found himself the toast of west of Ireland football, with another illuminating performance that sweeps a new wave of Galway footballers into the last eight of the championship.
Modern football careers seem to pass at the speed of light: it does not seem like all that long ago since Joyce was the irrepressible tyro on the Galway teams shaped by John O'Mahony. But yesterday, he could poke fun at himself as he contemplated a return to Croke Park.
"I hope they have narrowed the pitch since the last time I was up there, anyway," he said. "But yeah, we are looking forward to going up there and trying to get back into a semi-final.
"We dug ourselves out of a hole here and we put ourselves in. Four points up at half-time . . . we should have pushed on. But we made it hard for ourselves. Typical Galway. We conceded a very soft goal and it looked like they were going to sneak it, but in fairness our lads held their heads and got a couple of scores, which was great."
Liam Sammon has been the epitome of calmness since taking over the Galway team. Nobody expected to see him turning cartwheels down the old corridor yesterday, but this was a pleasing day for him - at least after the final whistle.
"I certainly couldn't enjoy it," he admitted. "But both teams should be complimented for their performances. I know Mayo will be disappointed and rightly so, but God help the team that meets them in the qualifiers, I have no doubt about that. I always felt - and I said this early on - that the team, apart from ourselves, that will do well is Mayo. And I hold with that."
With 10 minutes to go, Galway looked slightly on the rack, having squandered a four-point half-time advantage and, after an hour of play, facing a Mayo team that had the full vocal backing of the local gallery.
Sammon agreed that Mayo had the chances that could have changed the game. "Yes, if they had got the second goal, it would have been game over. That is the difference. We had chances in the first half too that we maybe didn't take. You will never take all the chances, but if you can take more than your share, you will do well."
It means that Galway move towards August concentrating on the positives. Afterwards, as their younger players spoke about the rest of the championship, they sounded grounded but fearless.
"In fairness, we have quality forwards and a quality bench and we have Padraic Joyce as our leader - and there isn't a better footballer in Ireland at the moment, that's for sure," said Cormac Bane.
"We are as good as anyone else. Obviously Kerry are favourites, and when Cork met them in a Munster final they were beatable. Cork are in a quarter-final and so are we. We aren't going to fear anyone in Croke Park, we will be full of confidence."
Confidence is what Mayo will need in abundance if they are to make it back to Jones' Road this year.
Once again, John O'Mahony will have to negotiate a path through the qualifying route. Never has that path looked so treacherous and the back door has not suited the Mayo temperament in the past. But O'Mahony was far from downbeat. "You can look back and say 'if only', but look, what we have to deal with is what is in the future. We will have a chat about this tomorrow night and the players will go back to their clubs and then we will regroup.
"It is not going to be easy but it is the only chance we have now and we have to grab it with both hands. Nobody wanted the qualifying route. But sometimes what kills us in the GAA is that we look at what happened in 1903 and wonder if it will happen again. I don't believe in that.
"You make your own luck. Now, there is vulnerability because you just lost your lost match. The key to it is to get back and win one. But there is a lot of good football and character in this side."
