Kieran Shannon: Pádraic Joyce in a provincial tier of his own so where is the acclaim?

Just one modern manager outside Kerry and Dublin has managed a provincial five in a row. 

Galway manager Padraic Joyce outside Pearse Stadium. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

We don’t think of him as one of the greats. As a player, yes, but not as a manager.

Yet should Galway overcome Roscommon this Sunday, Pádraic Joyce will become only the second post-war men’s inter-county manager from somewhere other than Kerry or Dublin to win a senior provincial football title in five consecutive years.

For all the great coaching minds that have come out of Ulster, no-one there has been able to pull off that particular five in a row since the Cavan teams of the early ’40s that Hughie O’Reilly looked after.

In Connacht, multiple trainers, coaches, managers – whatever you wish to call them – have won four consecutive Nestor Cups. Jackie Carney and Gerald Courell presided over those hallowed Mayo teams that won the All-Ireland in ’50 and ’51 (and before that, Connacht in ’48 and ’49). 

Tom Heneghan guided Roscommon to four straight Connacht titles that culminated in an All-Ireland final appearance in 1980. Most recently James Horan ripped off four straight Connachts upon first taking up the Mayo job.

But five or more? That’s another tier again. Billy Morgan marched Cork to four consecutive Munsters before becoming unstuck in 1991. Every other coach from the southern province to surpass that benchmark is from Kerry. 

Dr Éamonn O’Sullivan and Mick O’Dwyer each oversaw eight provincial titles on the trot while Éamonn Fitzmaurice, without much fuss or fanfare, pulled off a six-in-a-row from 2013 to 2018, no mean feat given Cork were Munster champions when he was appointed. Jack O’Connor can join such company this weekend with a fifth straight title since 2022.

Then you’ve a couple of Dubs: Jim Gavin (seven) and his successor Dessie Farrell (five). Heffo discounted himself by taking a sabbatical in ’77 in the middle of the county racking up six Leinsters straight, while Pillar Caffrey was like Horan in Mayo; after winning four straight provincial titles he didn’t stay on to see them win a fifth.

That leaves just one non-Dub or non-Kerryman as a member of that five-in-a-row club mixing with Gavin, Dessie, Micko and the two Éamonns. 

For decades John ‘Tull’ Dunne was Mr Galway Football, serving as county secretary from 1938 to 1981 as well as overseeing the senior sides that won every Connacht going from 1956 to 1960 as well as four straight (and three All-Irelands) between 1963 and 1966 which featured his son Cyril.

“It is an extraordinary contribution,” Colie McDonagh, a member of the victorious Connacht – and All-Ireland – winning team of ’66, once told Keith Duggan. “He was not recognised as managers subsequently were. And he was not a manager in that we didn’t refer to him as that. But he was the boss.” 

Now Joyce is. Like Dunne he won a couple of All-Irelands as a player before devoting himself to restoring the county’s glories. Indeed that was possibly his greatest qualification and remains his greatest strength: his bullish belief and being a totem of the possibilities and expectations of Galway football.

“When I first came in my initial thing was to state ‘We’re going to win the All Ireland,’” he told Tommy Rooney of The Football Pod at the start of this year. “I couldn’t just say we were going to win in Connacht and tip along and try to take Mayo off their perch. But Mayo were miles ahead of us at the time. Miles ahead.” 

He’d learn in the most brutal manner. In his first league meeting, Mayo trounced them by 15 points, then in the following year’s Connacht final outscored them by 13 points after half-time.

“That was a huge change for me,” he’d recount to Rooney. “About a month later myself and [selector] John Concannon got the players into a room, sat down with them and said, ‘Right, lads, how do we fix this?’” 

Nothing was spared, particularly Joyce’s feelings. Some even suggested he should walk. 

“My pride and ego was hurt. You would be thinking, ‘Jesus, what have I been coaching the last two years? It’s obviously been wrong. I haven’t helped the players.’” 

A raft of changes followed. Cian O’Neill as lead coach, Bernard Dunne as performance coach, paving the way for Corofin’s Dave Morris and former Irish and New Zealand high performance lead Darragh Sheridan to succeed them in such roles in later years. The biggest transformation though was Joyce himself.

By his own admission he’d have been “old school, a bit stout and stubborn”, “very tight and hot and heavy and shouting and roaring at half-time.” He’s “mellowed a lot”, taking on board the O’Neills and Sheridans and their advice.

No one trounces Galway anymore. Since that six-point defeat to Mayo in the 2021 Connacht final, they have won every Connacht championship match (11 and counting). Their heaviest defeat in championship has been four points – the 2022 All-Ireland final loss to Kerry. 

Every other championship defeat they’ve suffered has been by just a point (Armagh and Mayo 2023, Armagh 2024, Dublin and Meath 2025).

After the last of those Joyce considered his position before coming to a similar conclusion as the county executive: if not him, who? Someone from the Corofin mafia? The pick of their brains trust was already on board in Morris. The best manager and best management team was already in situ.

Larry Tompkins, Kieran McGeeney and Colm Collins are the only other modern football managers to have been afforded a seventh season without delivering an All-Ireland. An eighth without Sam Maguire would stretch everyone’s patience, not least Joyce’s.

In that sitdown with Rooney, Joyce spoke about how “distraught” he was after the 2024 final defeat to Armagh. He had to leave the country for Spain for a month, couldn’t leave the house for six weeks. “Wasn’t good to anyone.” 

Has he healed? Not fully. 

“The only way we’ll right that is to win it.” He wasn’t referring to five consecutive provincial titles. Until he has his hands back on Sam he won’t get or take the credit or consider himself truly in the same enclosure as those Dubs and Kerrymen and Tull Dunne himself.