The Connacht champions took a significant step towards topping Group One when they beat league champions Derry in Salthill this evening, a game shaped by the dismissal after 20 minutes of Derry’s Gareth McKinless for a stamp on Damien Comer, an act Joyce described as “nasty.”
It was Galway’s fifth championship win over Derry, maintaining a 100pc record.
Galway have Westmeath up next in Mullingar in two weeks’ time, a game they found challenging last year until Comer’s arrival and Ray Connellan’s dismissal that reduced the home side to 14.
Then two weeks later it’s Armagh who they played in the corresponding game last year in Carrick-on-Shannon. With Carrick apparently unavailable due to resurfacing according to Joyce, he has suggested Croke Park as a suitable meeting point.
“Obviously the venue will be the big one there. We’re looking to try and get the game in Croke Park if we can, see where it goes. But we’ll focus on Westmeath first,” he said.
Joyce acknowledged that Galway got a lift from winning the Connacht final against Mayo two weeks earlier that they were able to build on here.
“Our backs have been to the wall,” he said. “It’s alright me being out here trying to put a brave face on it. We had a horrendous league campaign with injuries and not alone that but they were to our marquee players.
“And it’s no disrespect to the lads that kept us in Division 1 and they probably didn’t get enough praise for doing it, but when lads started coming back, the week before the Mayo game was actually the first time we played a 15 v 15 in training all year, which is tough going.
“But in the last couple of weeks since the Mayo game we got a lift. The boys celebrated Sunday night and Monday, but we parked it Tuesday night and got focused on this Derry game.”
Comer was one of those missing and he was gone by the 46th minute with his manager unsure how serious it was.
“He got a nasty stamp in the ankle. He got on with that but it just gave way in the end there now. It was a horrendous thing to do, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Joyce of the McKinless stamp.
Sean Kelly and Rob Finnerty also went off injured, Finnerty with a “knock” to the knee according to Joyce.
Joyce also had special praise for his midfielder Paul Conroy, who will be 35 this week, for his performance as he rolled back the clock again to score three points.
“He’s some man,” said Joyce. “People in Galway don’t realise that type of player he is. I was still playing in his debut season (2008). He has been really sharp the last couple of weeks in training, we knew the way he played a game here last week, 15 v 15, with a couple of scores from play.
“He kicked three from play today, he was brilliant, a real legend of Galway football.”
Joyce always felt a tactical battle would evolve once Conor Doherty and Eoin McEvoy were ruled out for Derry.
“We kind of had a feeling it would go back to 15 behind the ball when the couple of injuries came in, so it took the lads a while to come to terms with that after we lost the first two scores. But we controlled it really well,” said Joyce.
“It’s alright saying hold the ball and mind the ball, but fellas get bored just passing over and back with nobody tackling them, so one lapse in concentration and the ball is turned over.
“We probably did force it a little bit in the second half at times and missed a few times and took the ball into contact when there was no need to do it, but we are learning all the time and getting better. But 2-14 is good kicking.”
