Pádraic Joyce desperate to see Galway end incredible wait for league title
PÁDRAIC JOYCE has called on Galway to banish their NFL hoodoo in this Sunday’s final. The Tribesmen will face old rivals Mayo in the Division 1 decider at Croke Park having not won a league title s… Galway have not won a league title since 1981 and will face old rivals Mayo in the Division 1 decider at Croke Park on Sunday. Pádraic Joyce is desperate to see Galway end their incredible wait for the title, and their manager is placing huge importance on the prospect of going all the way now. Galway banished their 2022 All-Ireland final conquerors Kerry at Pearse Stadium yesterday to reach the big day again, with Paul Conroy's fortunate first-half goal proving the difference when his effort at a point landed in the net. Kerry rallied again as Gavin White’s score and Seán O’Shea's free brought the gap back to three at the break, but with Peter Cooke superb, along with Tierney, Maher and Daly, the Tribesmen produced a controlled performance after the restart, never panicking.
Publié : il y a 2 mois par Jason Byrne dans Sports
PÁDRAIC JOYCE has called on Galway to banish their NFL hoodoo in this Sunday’s final.
The Tribesmen will face old rivals Mayo in the Division 1 decider at Croke Park having not won a league title since 1981.
Joyce lost Division 1 finals as a player against Mayo in 2001 and to Kerry in 2004 and 2006.
Galway were also beaten by Dublin in the 2018 showpiece.
But they banished their 2022 All-Ireland final conquerors Kerry at Pearse Stadium yesterday to reach the big day again, as Paul Conroy’s fortunate first-half goal proved the difference when his effort at a point landed in the net.
Joyce’s men never looked like losing as David Clifford was held scoreless from play by home captain Seán Kelly.
Their manager is placing huge importance on the prospect of going all the way now, saying: “It’s a national title.
"People say they don’t want to win the league but I lost three finals as a player and some of the lads lost one to Dublin a few years ago.
“It’s going back to 1981 when we last won and that’s a long, long time.
“I said it before that the teams who are successful in Championship pick up league titles along the way, whether it’s every second or third year.
“We have ambitions to do what we did last year and go one step further.
“It’s an extra battle again and when a team lose an All-Ireland final, it’s interesting to see how their league goes.
“We could have just stuck in mid-division and stayed up but the lads pushed it on and we had a target to get to a league final, and now we’re in the final and we’ve to go now and pick it up.”
Galway raged against the Kerry machine with the Salthill wind at their backs and climbed into the driving seat straight away.
Clifford struggled to get any change off Kelly and Jason Foley was having a ding-dong battle with Shane Walsh at the other end.
The hosts raced 0-6 to 0-2 ahead inside 20 minutes and nearly had a goal in the opening seconds when Conroy fed Johnny Heaney.
But his shot was saved by Shane Murphy.
Walsh, John Daly, John Maher, Matthew Tierney and Tomo Culhane all pointed for the hosts as Kerry struggled to get going against the stiff breeze.
Their only goal chance of the half saw Tony Brosnan play in Paudie Clifford but his shot was saved by Bernard Power.
His star sibling missed a simple free and looked frustrated when his second shot at goal also flew wide.
Tom O’Sullivan, though, was getting joy from his runs from deep and kicked two well-taken points.
But Galway surged 1-7 to 0-5 in front when Conroy’s long-ranger dipped fiercely and Murphy was left blushing when it landed in his net.
Kerry rallied again as Gavin White’s score and Seán O’Shea’s free brought the gap back to three at the break.
But with Peter Cooke superb, along with Tierney, Maher and Daly, the Tribesmen produced a controlled performance after the restart, never panicking.
Damien Comer came on to a rousing reception on his return from the knee injury he picked up in their defeat to Roscommon earlier in the campaign.
And he showed no signs of rust when he bullied three Kerry players away from him to plant a beauty over the bar.
Kerry’s inside line of Brosnan, David Clifford and Donal O’Sullivan failed to score, while the elder Clifford was denied a goal by Dylan McHugh’s heroic block.
O’Shea kept Kerry in touch from the resulting 45 and David Clifford got off the mark with two frees but that was his lot for the day.
And Rob Finnerty’s beauty along with two Walsh frees sent the hosts into the final as they bossed the latter stages.
O’Shea had a goal effort saved by Power and Kingdom boss Jack O’Connor admits their poor conversion rate cost them as their campaign finished with a fourth defeat on the road.
They kicked seven wides and often took the wrong options, with O’Connor hoping they can iron all that out before they play Tipperary or Waterford in their Munster semi-final on April 22.
He said: “Ah look, we don’t point fingers at anyone. Any player. We all make mistakes. I’ve made plenty of mistakes over the years.
“Obviously you could pinpoint incidents from every game that cost you the game.
“I think the overall thing that cost us today’s game is we didn’t convert enough chances.
"We had plenty of the play. Our finishing wasn’t good enough.
"I felt it was going to be a push for us to reach a league final this year. We had to start behind other teams.
“I don’t want to keep harping on about that and not using it as a massive excuse but you have to say when you start on the back foot, plus missing a good share of players at the start of the year . . . we are starting to get back and our panel is getting stronger.
“It’s just hard to win games away. Galway are a decent team, they had a good crowd here today, well used to the pitch.
“We are happy enough to go away now and four weeks until the Championship will give us an opportunity to do some solid, uninterrupted training and hit the ground running in four weeks’ time.”
GALWAY: B Power; J McGrath, S Kelly, S Fitzgerald; D McHugh, J Daly 0-1, C Hernon; P Conroy 1-0, J Maher 0-2; M Tierney 0-1, J Heaney, P Cooke; T Culhane 0-1, S Walsh 0-5f, C Sweeney 0-1. Subs: J Glynn for Hernon h-t; D Comer 0-1 for Culhane 42 mins; R Finnerty 0-1 for Maher 54; D O’Flaherty for Heaney 72.
KERRY: S Murphy; D Casey, J Foley, T O’Sullivan 0-2; P Murphy, T Morely, G White 0-1; J Barry, BD O’Sullivan 0-2; R Murphy, S O’Shea 0-5, 2f, 2’45, P Clifford 0-2; T Brosnan, D Clifford 0-2f, D O’Sullivan. Subs: D O’Connor for BD O’Sullivan 32 mins blood; D Moynihan for R Murphy h-t; O’Connor for BD O’Sullivan 40; K Spillane for D O’Sullivan 46; G O’Sullivan for Casey 52; P Geaney for Murphy 66.
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