“We made every decision on the pitch correct. To a man I thought our lads were absolutely outstanding.
“There were emotional scenes at the end there. Some people might say we over-celebrated a bit, but any day you beat one of the best teams that’s played football for the past 10 or 15 years, you’d be very, very happy.”
Joyce, who led Galway to the 2022 All-Ireland final, added: “I know there’s nothing won. But we’ll get them calmed down and ready for a semi-final in two weeks’ time.”
Galway’s comeback win came despite injuries to captain Sean Kelly, who was forced off after 20 minutes, and star forward Shane Walsh, whose replacement Culhane kicked a crucial late score.
Joyce – twice an All-Ireland winner as a Galway player – opted to start Damien Comer and Walsh despite both players having had recent injury troubles, with the Tribe boss saying “you’re a genius when it works out and you’re a clown when it doesn’t work out.
“There was no point in us having a bench full of Damien Comers and Shane Walshs and then bringing them on and trying to chase the game from seven or eight points down,” he observed.
“We took a gamble on it and tried to keep them in the game as long as we can. We tried to keep Damien as close to the goal as we could, which worked out alright.
“Cein D’Arcy had a bit of a knock, he was a loss to us but then he came on. Obviously, the nature of injuries, we played the last six, seven, eight minutes with probably 13 fully fit bodies on the pitch, unfortunately, but we got over it.”
