Padraig Joyce sticks to the script: 'It is about winning the All-Ireland'

FOCUSED: Galway manager Pádraic Joyce

There’s a sign loaded onto the Galway bus on game days that is then placed over their dressing-room door when they arrive at the match venue

The sign, which reads to find a way, is the parting message for the players before they head out onto the field.

On Saturday evening, and after Derry had opened up a three-point lead by the 12th minute, a lethargic Galway had to find a way to hang in there, to not let this All-Ireland semi-final slip away from them.

The restart following Derry’s third point was sent short to Seán Kelly, but Shane McGuigan got a hand in to take the ball away from the Galway captain. The Derry full-forward darted menacingly towards Conor Gleeson’s goal, but Kelly, in a crucial redeeming act, somehow found a way to spoil the attack and save Galway from falling further behind, the same as his defensive colleague Kieran Molloy had done three minutes earlier when smothering a Paul Cassidy goal attempt.

The Ulster champions would add only one further point across the remainder of the half, a gap of 22 minutes separating their third and fourth white flags. Turning around level for the second period, Galway, helped by five first half Derry wides and an overruled HawkEye decision, had found a way to remain alive in the contest.

“You have to find a way - whatever goes on,” said manager Pádraic Joyce.

“You are not always going to win a game by kicking 2-19 or 2-20. The most pleasing part is the lads did find a way.

“They eked it out, they put the shoulder to the wheel, and worked really, really hard. 

"They took the hits, they gave the hits, They completely snuffed Derry out.”

Joyce, strangely enough, admitted afterwards that he wasn’t worried at any point during a first half spent in Derry's slipstream and one where his team didn’t get off the mark until the 22nd minute.

“We were a little slow getting going, we were lacking energy. We weren't playing that well, but at the same time we were in the game, so we just thought, get to half-time, and we did.

“In the second half, we said we would be a bit more brave and show a bit more energy going forward. In fairness, we did. We tagged on a few points after half-time through difficult Shane Walsh frees. The goal then was a crucial turning point by Damien [Comer]. He turned his man really well. It was a great ball in by John Daly.

“From then on, we were five or six up, it was easier to manage the game. The lads managed the game really well. 

"They had been criticised for not managing the last couple of games out right, but today they did.”

With talk of Galway’s “soft underbelly” put to bed by a first pair of back-to-back Croke Park championship wins since the maroon summer of 2001, Galway’s next mission is to make good on the ambitious first statement delivered by Joyce when he was handed the top post in October of 2019.

“I said it from day one when I got the job, it is about winning the All-Ireland. It has taken us three years to get here. We're here now so we are definitely going to make the most of it. People might say we’ve had the easier side of the draw, all this kind of stuff, but look, we are there on merit.”