'You get nothing soft in the Hyde'
Connacht Final on Sunday
ROSCOMMON will attempt to prise the JJ Nestor Cup from Galway's grasp in Dr. Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon and win the Connacht Senior Football Championship for the first time in seven seasons.
For the Tribesmen, it's a shot at history and becoming only the fourth team in the province to put five successive titles together.
Herald Sport spoke with Galway manager Padraic Joyce at the team's pre-final press event in Loughgeorge last Saturday morning.
ON THE OPPORTUNITY TO CAPTURE A FIFTH CONNACHT IN-A-ROW
I wouldn't say I'm a student of history, but I'm conscious of it, because we haven't ever done it. Is it a driving force for us? No, it's the next game for us as far as we're concerned. The five in-a-row, we still have lads in the group going for one in-a-row, some going for two in-a-row, some going for three in-a-row.
When we took on this work seven years ago, it was to make Galway more competitive, to make them reach the summit. We are still trying to do that. The Connacht final is a huge occasion. I've always put massive value in the Connacht final, and no matter what, it's a safety net at the minute.
No, you're not out of the championship if you lose it, but I just think it's really important to win your province because it gives you such a bounce going into the next phase. We are conscious of it, the players are conscious of it, we don't speak about it as a group saying we have to win it, or we must get this, we must get that. It's an opportunity for us to get it, but the challenge ahead is huge, we know that, especially in Hyde Park, with a team that is probably one of the form teams in the country at the minute.
ON ROSCOMMON'S WIN OVER MAYO
I was impressed, but at the same time, I wasn't surprised. I know a lot of people were very, very surprised that Roscommon beat Mayo in Castlebar. Personally, I wasn't. I know the bookmakers had them 3/1 or 4/1. I know a few lads in Killererin made a few pound out of it. But I wasn't [surprised] because they have good players and they've always had good players in Roscommon. It is just when they get the mix right together, they can be really, really hard to beat. They got into their flow in that game as well. You could sense at half-time - I was down at it - that Roscommon were going to win that game. They got 11 possessions after half-time and they scored 10 times, that's a sign of a quality team.
ON GALWAY'S CLOSE SHAVE IN LEITRIM
Obviously, after the match, I was disappointed in the performance levels that we produced. We still produced a lot of good stuff, as I said afterwards. But, again, the five-week break we had [after the National League], did it impact us? It obviously did a little bit, a little bit rusty, but at the same time, we came out of it with lads getting great game time. Cillian [McDaid] got a full game in to him. We got Shane [Walsh] and Damien [Comer] back playing. John Daly got a full game and even got Paul [Conroy] into his first full game of the year as well. So, I think a lot of positives come out of it when you sit back and look at it. When I woke up on Monday morning, I was definitely very, very positive. I wasn’t like Jim McGuinness or Andy Moran, out of the provincials. We can sometimes look for the perfect five-star performance all the time. It doesn't always come, but championship football is about results and on the day, we got it. We have stuff to work on and we've kept the head down really, really hard the last couple of days to try and sort stuff out.
Read the full interview in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald, on sale in shops or buy our digital edition here