Kerry v Galway: Padraic Joyce’s return trip to a favourite learning ground

Galway manager Padraic Joyce expects ‘a very tough battle for the 70 or 75 minutes’ in Saturday’s Allianz FL Division 1 South clash with Kerry in Tralee. Picture: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Padraic Joyce comes from a family and an area in north Co Galway steeped in football but it wasn’t until he went to study in Tralee that he witnessed what real glory looked like.

And as he looked out the window of his flat in Tralee as the victorious Kerry squad which had just ousted Mayo in the 1997 All-Ireland were paraded through the town on an open truck, he vowed that he and Galway would one day experience that. Actually, not one day, but the following year and he wasn’t even in the Galway squad at that stage.