THE LURE OF ALL-IRELAND CROWN WAS TOO MUCH

Having twice missed out on the game's biggest prize at the final stage Joyce commits to lift Sam Maguire

- BY GARRY DOYLE

PÁDRAIC Joyce admits the decision to return for a seventh season as Galway senior football manager was not one taken lightly.

After six demanding years at the helm, and two All-Ireland final defeats that cut deep, the Galway boss stepped back at the end of last season to consider whether he still had the appetite to continue. In the end, it was an unfinished ambition — and an enduring grá for the job — that drew him back.

Joyce, a two-time All-Ireland winner as a player in 1998 and 2001, is now chasing a third Celtic Cross in a very different role. Having guided Galway to four successive Connacht titles and All-Ireland deciders in both 2022 and 2024, the Tribesmen remain among the games elite. But the biggest prize continues to elude them.

That, Joyce admits, still gnaws away.

“It took me a long time to decide whether I was going back or not,” he said. “It's my seventh year now. The grá was slow coming, but it's back again now, thank God.

“Once you're back in the mix and playing games, it comes quick enough. You realise how privileged you are to be involved.”

Joyce said his annual end-of-season review process played a key role in the decision. As always, it involved honest conversations with players and backroom staff, and a clear-eyed assessment of where Galway stand.

“I do it every year,” he said. “I always review the year independently with the players and the backroom team. The reason I'm involved with Galway is for the betterment of Galway football, not for the betterment of me.

“So I did pause on it for a while, but after talking with the players, we agreed to stick at it.”

There is no sense of Joyce returning to settle scores or to “set the record straight”. Instead, he believes Galway remain a work in progress — close, but not complete.