Joyce: Defeat 'will haunt Galway for a while'

TOUGH TO TAKE: A dejected Galway manager Pádraic Joyce. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

It's the expected score statistic that will probably finish you off if you're a Galway supporter.

According to the former Galway analyst Stephen O'Meara, who provided a statistical breakdown of the final on X, Galway should have won the All-Ireland final by 14.2 points to 11.6.

There are no All-Ireland medals handed out for possession statistics and score attempts, of course, and the more efficient Armagh ultimately made off with the tin, winning by a point, 0-14 to 0-13.

Galway shot nine wides, dropped several more attempts short and turned just 13 of their 25 shots into scores, a mere 52 percent conversion rate compared to Armagh's 63 percent.

"We're absolutely devastated, the dressing room is in an awful state," said Galway manager Padraic Joyce. 

"Firstly, congratulations to Armagh and congratulations to Kieran McGeeney on the job he's done with them. You can't take that away from them. They won the game. 

"We have to be realistic here, we didn't play anywhere near our potential in the second-half. We probably made more mistakes in the second-half than we've made in all the games all year.

"Look, it's going to be hard to take. We had 25 shots on goal and we scored 13. I'm not going to sit here and criticise players because they're great lads in Galway. 

"The effort they have put in for me all year, and the last five years, has been fantastic. It's just hard to put your finger on how we didn't perform the way we should have performed.

Galway manager Padraic Joyce and Paul Conroy. Pic: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

"It's going to haunt us for a while. We had a great chance after a super year. Both teams did. We knew coming into it that someone was going to be disappointed and someone was going to be elated. We're going to regret it for a long time.

Perhaps injuries ultimately caught up with Galway? Captain Sean Kelly was unable to start. Rob Finnerty was forced off inside 15 minutes. Shane Walsh and Damien Comer were possibly restricted by injuries too.

"I don't think the injuries caught up," rejected Joyce. "The injuries didn't kick the ball wide or take the shots. It wasn't injuries catching up with us. No one goes out to play bad, just not enough of our players hit form. Rob was a big loss to us as well early on. That probably impacted most of the decisions we made as well as regards substitutions all day. Look, it's very hard to stomach it."

Walsh and Comer hit just two points between them, and only one from play. Throw in Finnerty's difficulties and the inside forward line was rendered virtually redundant. Long kicks for points were often the only option, too many of them flying wide.

"You have no choice but to hit long-range shots when you're playing against 15 men behind the ball all day," shrugged Joyce. "There's not much we can do there."

Still, he felt the wides immediately after Armagh's goal were particularly sapping.

"A couple at crucial times, yeah," he nodded. "We just never got back level or pushed a point up and we had a couple of chances. It's difficult. No words can put down the way I feel. I'm heartbroken for the lads moreso. They're devastated."

Joyce won two All-Irelands as a player with Galway, in 1998 and 2001. He has now lost two as manager of his county. He said the 2022 final defeat to Kerry was an easier one to take, even though they lost by four points that day.

"Aw yeah," he agreed. "At least two years ago we probably weren't...okay, in the last couple of minutes Kerry were the better team. But today we had chance after chance after chance. So it's going to be hard to take. But we'll stick together for Galway football. We've come a long way from where we were. While we're devastated today, football in Galway has improved. 

"At least we're back up near the top table now. It's going to be a tough couple of days. They can maybe hide during the middle of race week but it's going to be a tough couple of days."

After four Championship games between the teams across the last three seasons now, Armagh are just two points better off in cumulative terms; 5-57 to 3-61.

"I wouldn't say they're our bogey team," said Joyce. "Sure we played them and they only won the game by a point. Fair play to them. They're a committed group, you can see it the way they play. They give it everything. They get the best out of their lads."