Joyce’s Tribesmen already in championship mode ahead of Connacht semi-final

GALWAY senior football manager Padraic Joyce believed his side cannot allow their season to be judged by the “20 minutes of poor football” they played against Mayo, stressing that now “it’s all about championship”.

After responding to their drubbing to Mayo the week previous with a solid performance against reigning All-Ireland champions Dublin, Joyce, although conceding they still had plenty to work on, was more optimistic about where his team were at.

“It’s always difficult when you get beaten by 15 points, especially to your arch rivals,” said Joyce, as he reflected on the week after the Mayo game. “But on reviewing the video, it was probably 20 minutes of poor football we played in the first half that cost us the whole thing.

“Look it, we can’t allow ourselves to be judged on 20 minutes’ football. We’ve gone through it with a fine tooth comb all week; we met, we thrashed it out and we got to the bottom of it, what was wrong, and we rectified some of it today (against Dublin).

“We’re still taking baby steps but it’s all about championship and hopefully it’s out of our system now, and hopefully you won’t see a performance like that again.”

Among the positives Joyce took from last Sunday were Mountbellew/Moylough’s James Foley and Moycullen’s Paul Kelly making their senior debuts; the return of Shane Walsh from injury; the introduction of Gary Sice; and the form of man of the match Paul Conroy.

“Paul was excellent for us, in fairness to him. He showed great leadership, caught some great ball for us. And even Gary Sice when he came on; I thought he was excellent, read the game really well and got on the ball. He just had that calming effect, a bit of composure which we were lacking a little bit of.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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