Joyce ready to embrace another Hyde Park road trip
BATTLE HARDENED: Galway senior football manager, Pádraic Joyce, has enjoyed many battles in Dr. Hyde Park, both as a player and a manager. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie
These are the days that Pádraic Joyce enjoys most.
The Galway manager cut a relaxed figure when speaking to the media at Galway GAA’s press morning ahead of Sunday’s big game. For the former All-Ireland winning footballer, travelling to King and Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park for a Connacht final will be an occasion to savour, one he has sampled before as a player.
“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 there, it's a fabulous surface. 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 and 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,” he noted.
Although this current iteration of Roscommon are still developing and improving, Joyce, who was an interested spectator in MacHale Park on Sunday week, stated that Roscommon’s impressive second-half surge was no surprise to him.
“I know the bookmakers had it 3 or 4-1. I know a few guys in Killererin made a few pound out of it, but I wasn't surprised, because they have good players. They have always had good players in Roscommon.
“When they get the mix right, they can be really, really hard to beat. They got into their flow in that game as well. You could sense it at half time that Roscommon were going to win that game. They got 11 possessions after half time and they scored ten times — that's a sign of a quality team,” Joyce noted.
Despite this being Galway’s 11th Connacht final appearance in a row, Joyce insists that a strong provincial campaign is an ideal springboard for the year ahead. He also states that trying to secure a five-in-a-row of provincial titles for only the second time in the county’s history is not something the group will discuss prior to throw-in.
“The five-in-a-row — we still have lads in the group going for one-in-a-row, some going for two-in-a-row, some going for three-in-a-row.
“We took on this work seven years ago, to make Galway more competitive, to help them reach the summit. We are still trying to do that, and the Connacht final is a huge occasion. I've always put massive value on the Connacht final.
“No, you're not out of the championship if you lose it, but I just think it's really important to win your province, because it gives you such a bounce going into the next phase.
“We are conscious of it, and the players are conscious of it. We don't speak about it as a group saying we have to win it, we must get this, we must get that. It's an opportunity for us to get it, but the challenge ahead is huge. We know that, especially in Hyde Park, against a team that is probably one of the form teams in the country at the minute,” he concluded.
