Joyce: Galway can't keep doing just enough

A fourth Galway win of the campaign but manager Padraic Joyce insists they need to raise the bar

UNDER PRESSURE: Westmeath's Sam McCartan tackled by Jack Glynn and Peter Cooke of Galway. Pic: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan

All-Ireland SFC Group 2

Westmeath 0-12 Galway 0-20

Galway victories have earned the status of common commodity in recent times. Just as regular are the refrains that there is more to come from Padraic Joyce’s team and the manager has been a leading voice in that very chorus.

This was Galway’s fourth game, and win, of the Championship ‘summer’ and the third time he felt the need to raise the bar for his team shortly after the final whistle. Who says you learn more from losses?

Joyce followed the Connacht semi-final defeat of Roscommon by suggesting that Damien Comer had carried them over the line on his own. The display in the opening All-Ireland series win against 14-man Tyrone was flagged as too lateral, lacking zip.

So it was again after this eight-point win against Westmeath on Saturday which he admitted was “flattering”, Galway scoring nine of the last ten points in the wake of Ray Connellan’s 53rd-minute sending off for a second yellow card offence.

“We’re saying this the last couple of games - and it is a positive to win games and not play well. We still kicked 20 scores, which is our target, (but) when are we going to put a performance together that is across the board?

“An 8/10 team performance instead of individuals carrying us across the line: that’s the challenge for us and we have a huge challenge now in two weeks’ time,” said the Galway boss. “That would be a nice place to start.” 

Armagh, who have lost to them in agonising fashion in league and in championship inside the last 12 months, provide the opposition in that last group game. A win for Galway there is no sure thing.

Neither was this until Connellan got himself dismissed and Comer, held back due to a tight hamstring last week, was unleashed from the bench to twist the screw at precisely the right time. Comer ended up with three quickfire points.

Joyce gave Westmeath their due, as was only right, and Dessie Dolan was across the corridor at much the same time rueing the referee’s failure to give Senan Baker a free at the Galway end just before Connellan’s indiscretion.

As sliding door theories go it comes unglued given the manner in which Galway have eked out wins from tight spots this season and last, and by dint of the fact that they spurned a fistful of very good goal chances before that.

Either way, Joyce knows that they can’t keep just doing enough.

“It’s a habit we have to get out of because if we play that kind of football against other teams you could be six or seven down instead of one or two down at half-time and it would have been an uphill battle if they had got a goal.” 

The positives were individual more than collective. The first name off his lips was that of Cian Hernon. A member of the All-Ireland U20-winning side in 2020, Hernon was outstanding in a championship debut at full-back where he kept John Heslin company and claimed a pair of points to go with it.

John Maher was given lighter duties as a second-half replacement after doing so much spadework already in the campaign. Like Comer, he made an instant impact with his point from play just the icing on the cake.

Then there was Peter Cooke who sprinkled four points from play throughout a performance that made him an obvious shout for man of the match. These are not the first names people reach for with Galway. That’s a good thing.

The sight of Shane Walsh, who was held to just the one point from play, limping around for most of the second half will be a worry - and Robert Finnerty left early with an injury - but there is more encouraging news from the casualty wing.

Sean Mulkerrin didn’t make the field here but his return to the matchday panel 15 months after shattering a kneecap is clear progress while Kieran Molloy is close to a return after tearing knee ligaments with Corofin last autumn.

Joyce is encouraged but remains cautious.

“There is an awful difference in coming back from injury in June where the pace of the game has gone so high and they have to catch up. We see Cillian McDaid there when he came back, it took him a couple of weeks to get going, so I’m sure the lads will be the same.” 

Scorers for Westmeath: R O’Toole and L Loughlin (both 0-2); J Heslin (0-2); J Smith, R Wallace, S McCartan, S Smith and E Mulvihill (all 0-1); R Connellan (0-1 ‘45’).

Scorers for Galway: S Walsh (0-4, 0-3 frees); P Cooke (0-4); D Comer (0-3): C Hernon (0-2); J Heaney (0-2, 0-1 mark); P Conroy, C Sweeney, I Burke and J Maher (all 0-1); M Tierney (0-1 ‘45’).

WESTMEATH: J Daly; D Lynch, K Maguire, J Smith; J Gonoud, J Dolan, A McCormack; S Duncan, R Connellan; S McCartan, R O’Toole, R Wallace; L Loughlin, J Heslin, S Smith.

Subs: J Lynam for Duncan (20); D Giles for J Smith (47); S Baker for S Smith (48); E Mulvihill for Gonoud (55); C Dillon for McCormack (64).

GALWAY: C Gleeson, J McGrath, C Hernon, J Glynn; C McDaid, J Daly, S Kelly; P Conroy, M Tierney; P Cooke, C Sweeney, J Heaney; R Finnerty, I Burke, S Walsh.

Subs: T Culhane for Finnerty (8); J Maher for Culhane (47); D Comer for Burke (55); P Kelly for Walsh (70); S Fitzgerald for Hernon (73)

Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan).