GALWAY BOSS PÁDRAIC Joyce felt some of the second-half decisions by referee David Gough were ‘baffling’ in their All-Ireland quarter-final defeat on Sunday against Dublin.
Joyce highlighted in particular the fact that a penalty was not awarded for a foul on John Maher in the finale, but also stressed that Galway need to ‘own’ the defeat and accept their own mistakes as they were overtaken by Dublin.
“We had Shane (Walsh) running through on goal, he gets dragged to the ground by three lads, and no free given. We then come back, and we have an advantage on a two-pointer that John Maher catches inside the big square.
“He is clearly pulled to the ground from what I can see, and the free is not given because the referee told the linesman that it wasn’t a foul, so go back to the two-point free.
“Not taking away from what Dublin did at the end there. We can put a bit of blame on ourselves to score only once when we were six up and lose by four, so we were outscored by 11 points to one. Definitely there was some decisions there that I found baffling.
“I thought we had an extra body inside covering that (when Liam Silke received a black card), but David deemed it a penalty, so I can’t dispute that. But I would take issue with the other one, the one John Maher didn’t get. That’s a frustrating one.
“We have to own the defeat, which I’ll do, and the players will do. There was a lot of stuff in the game that didn’t go right for us. We didn’t get our hands on enough ball from kickouts. Everyone knows that.
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“But we had chances, as well, we had a few bad wides. Our efficiency overall was quite good. We just didn’t see the game out. Went six up, should have pushed on more and got scores. Didn’t do it and paid the ultimate price for it.”
Galway exit the championship at the quarter-final stage for the second successive year. Joyce acknowledged some of the key figures who guided them to All-Ireland finals in 2022 and 2024, have suffered a series of setbacks during his time in charge.
A dejected Paul Conroy after the match. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“I think I’ve seven years done here, and now we’ve two more to do. Galway’s getting there. We’ve been in four quarter-finals now, we’ve lost two of them, lost two finals.
“It’s a lot of defeats for a lot of the players. Today is probably not the day to talk about that, but there’s still a lot of good young talent coming through in the squad. There’s two or three probably on the wrong side of 30 at the same time. Not that they’re going to decide that in the next while, but they just have to come back again.
“The football is there in the county so they’ll always be there or thereabouts.”
After an emotionally-charged week with the passing of Paul Clancy, Joyce paid tribute to his team-mate on All-Ireland winning squads.
The Galway formed a 10 figure before throw-in as a mark of respect to Clancy.
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A tribute to Paul Clancy before the game. james lawlor
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“It’s heartbreaking for him to be gone at such a young age, 49 years of age. A team-mate, a great friend of mine over the years, played underage with him, a lot of us did.
“He was a brilliant footballer, first and foremost a great guy, great team-mate. Always had your back, really believed in his own ability, and he contributed to Galway football.
“What he’s done for his club, Moycullen, he loved his club. He’s always battled away with them, and he got them an intermediate title back in 2008 and then played away. When he finished playing, back in doing the chairman role in the club, which not many players do, he galvanised the club and helped them to win three county finals in a couple of years.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Joanna and the kids and the Fahey family, the Clancy family. I know his mother Mary from talking to the funeral is watching the game today and hoping for the best. It’s devastating, it really is. There is more to life than football.
“You look at that now, he’s gone, and his kids have to grow up now without their Dad in their life. It’s really tough. All our players and the Galway team is back here in four weeks’ time as a Jubilee. It’s going to be really tough for that team to try and do that again without him in a couple of weeks.
“A huge effect on the people in Galway all week. He got a huge send-off from everyone, from his former team-mates, from his club, from his workmates in the ESB, everyone gave him a good send-off.”
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Pádraic Joyce: 'There was some decisions there that I found baffling'
GALWAY BOSS PÁDRAIC Joyce felt some of the second-half decisions by referee David Gough were ‘baffling’ in their All-Ireland quarter-final defeat on Sunday against Dublin.
Joyce highlighted in particular the fact that a penalty was not awarded for a foul on John Maher in the finale, but also stressed that Galway need to ‘own’ the defeat and accept their own mistakes as they were overtaken by Dublin.
“We had Shane (Walsh) running through on goal, he gets dragged to the ground by three lads, and no free given. We then come back, and we have an advantage on a two-pointer that John Maher catches inside the big square.
“He is clearly pulled to the ground from what I can see, and the free is not given because the referee told the linesman that it wasn’t a foul, so go back to the two-point free.
“Not taking away from what Dublin did at the end there. We can put a bit of blame on ourselves to score only once when we were six up and lose by four, so we were outscored by 11 points to one. Definitely there was some decisions there that I found baffling.
“I thought we had an extra body inside covering that (when Liam Silke received a black card), but David deemed it a penalty, so I can’t dispute that. But I would take issue with the other one, the one John Maher didn’t get. That’s a frustrating one.
“We have to own the defeat, which I’ll do, and the players will do. There was a lot of stuff in the game that didn’t go right for us. We didn’t get our hands on enough ball from kickouts. Everyone knows that.
“But we had chances, as well, we had a few bad wides. Our efficiency overall was quite good. We just didn’t see the game out. Went six up, should have pushed on more and got scores. Didn’t do it and paid the ultimate price for it.”
Galway exit the championship at the quarter-final stage for the second successive year. Joyce acknowledged some of the key figures who guided them to All-Ireland finals in 2022 and 2024, have suffered a series of setbacks during his time in charge.
“I think I’ve seven years done here, and now we’ve two more to do. Galway’s getting there. We’ve been in four quarter-finals now, we’ve lost two of them, lost two finals.
“It’s a lot of defeats for a lot of the players. Today is probably not the day to talk about that, but there’s still a lot of good young talent coming through in the squad. There’s two or three probably on the wrong side of 30 at the same time. Not that they’re going to decide that in the next while, but they just have to come back again.
“The football is there in the county so they’ll always be there or thereabouts.”
After an emotionally-charged week with the passing of Paul Clancy, Joyce paid tribute to his team-mate on All-Ireland winning squads.
The Galway formed a 10 figure before throw-in as a mark of respect to Clancy.
“It’s heartbreaking for him to be gone at such a young age, 49 years of age. A team-mate, a great friend of mine over the years, played underage with him, a lot of us did.
“He was a brilliant footballer, first and foremost a great guy, great team-mate. Always had your back, really believed in his own ability, and he contributed to Galway football.
“What he’s done for his club, Moycullen, he loved his club. He’s always battled away with them, and he got them an intermediate title back in 2008 and then played away. When he finished playing, back in doing the chairman role in the club, which not many players do, he galvanised the club and helped them to win three county finals in a couple of years.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Joanna and the kids and the Fahey family, the Clancy family. I know his mother Mary from talking to the funeral is watching the game today and hoping for the best. It’s devastating, it really is. There is more to life than football.
“You look at that now, he’s gone, and his kids have to grow up now without their Dad in their life. It’s really tough. All our players and the Galway team is back here in four weeks’ time as a Jubilee. It’s going to be really tough for that team to try and do that again without him in a couple of weeks.
“A huge effect on the people in Galway all week. He got a huge send-off from everyone, from his former team-mates, from his club, from his workmates in the ESB, everyone gave him a good send-off.”
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