Galway manager Padraic Joyce never disappoints when it comes to after-match soundbites. Here's a quote journey through the Championship thus far.
In the wake of Galway's league performance against Mayo in which they lost at home by eight points, there were questions over the extent to which they were targeting the league.
"The league is a fantastic competition in my eyes. Always was and always will be. Division 1 is a tough league. People might say, 'aw, they don't want to win it'. But no county goes out there to try and lose games.
"In the league, you try and get four points in your first three games. That's the target really, to give yourselves a bit of a cushion.
"We want to try and develop players for the championship down the line. We understand all that. The league is a building block for the championship, that's where it's at.
"The big positive is that, even though everything was going against it and we weren’t really clicking as a team, we kept at it and kept at it and eventually got the break at the end. We didn’t give up. The lads stuck at it, I have to give them full marks for that.
"That’s the only thing I can take out of it. There’s three or four lads who had brilliant performances but other than that, it was a disappointing enough day for us, now."
Padraig Joyce speaking after the let-off against Sligo in the Connacht semi-final. Joyce suggested the Saturday afternoon throw-in time may have played a part in Galway’s subdued performance, but he warned his side that they have a fortnight to shape up before the provincial final against Mayo, or they could be in for a long day.
"We’re just relieved to get out of that. Very relieved to win the game, we didn’t perform anywhere near our levels.
"Sligo were very unfortunate not to see the game out, we’ve probably robbed them in the end, to be honest. It was the 73rd minute before we got ahead in the game. We know we were lucky to win the game.
"We can find some excuse somewhere, obviously a match at half-three in the afternoon on a Saturday is not ideal to try get motivated for but there’s always some excuse," Joyce offered.
"But that performance is not near good enough and if we perform like that in two weeks' time, we’ll have a job keeping the ball kicked out. The big positive is that, even though everything was going against it and we weren’t really clicking as a team, we kept at it and kept at it and eventually got the break at the end. We didn’t give up. The lads stuck at it, I have to give them full marks for that.
"That’s the only thing I can take out of it. There’s three or four lads who had brilliant performances but other than that, it was a disappointing enough day for us, now."
Padraig Joyce after the dramatic win over neighbours Mayo in the Connacht Final
"We were given no chance going into the game. A lot of talk about it. One thing I'll say, you can never question the character of these boys and the way they train. We've had a troubling year with injuries and what-not, the loss of form as well, trying to get everyone right.
"I wouldn't be overly happy with the performance but when you beat Mayo in the Connacht final, it was great. The character shown by the lads was fantastic."
"We all know stuff is written by different people that pressure was on us, pressure was on me as well.
“It was great to win it. It puts us into a group in two weeks' time with Derry at home. We'll celebrate tonight and do all that but we're looking forward to the game."
"When you see articles written about different stuff on our side and nothing on the far side, it does get to you a little bit.
"There are people out there, they can just pull out their phones and send a message on social media and it's all over the place unfortunately.
“That's the world that’s in it. We know there are a lot of gobshites out there. We let it in the left ear and out the right ear.
“I say to the lads, all that matters is what's in our four walls. If we can get ourselves right, we’ll have no one to blame at the end of the year only ourselves if we don’t get where we want."
Shane Walsh's late breakaway goal secured the win for Galway in Mullingar, but Joyce was not fooled by the gap.
"Eight points probably flatters us a little bit but at the same time probably had four or five good goal chances that we didn’t take, so we could have been probably ahead at half-time.
"Full credit to Westmeath, they were set up really well. I watched them last week and they pushed Armagh all the way and probably would have won the game only for a lucky goal, so we knew it was going to be tough and any time you win away from home in the Championship you’re doing well, so we’ll take it.”
A draw against Armagh in Sligo saw Galway face the prospect of Dublin at Croker. Joyce understandably was not too happy with the finishing.
“We scored 15 shots out of 30 attempts. That is the bottom line. It is not a high enough conversion to have. We have to take it on the chin and move on. They are disappointed. We’ll have to lift them up and get ready for the preliminary quarter-final next Sunday or whenever it is on.”
“Overall pleased enough with how the lads played – a monumental first-half performance. Played really, really well, controlled the ball, controlled the game but in these games against better teams, you have to take your chances and we just didn’t in the second half.
The Dublin victory was momentous and Joyce was understandably emotional. Galway substitutes Céin D'Arcy, Johnny Heaney, and Tomo Culhane landed vital scores in a dramatic second period.
"You’re a genius when it works out and you’re a clown when it doesn’t work out," Joyce responded when asked about the impact of the players Galway summoned from the bench.
"We were four down at half-time, but at the same time at half time we come in, there was no roaring or shouting or panicking because we hadn't played overly well," Joyce reflected.
"Right after half time, that score Cillian got and that's what, we targeted the first five, 10 minutes after half time, just solely, because if Dublin got the first one or two scores, sure it was game over, they would be six up.
"So, for us to claw back and keep in the game and take it down the stretch. You know, we've been questioned before in the past about soft mentality, not closing games out.
"There was no point in us having a bench full of Damien Comer and Shane Walsh and then bringing them on and trying to chase the game from seven or eight points down.
"We took a gamble on it and tried to keep them in the game as long as we can. We tried to keep Damien as close to the goal as we could, which worked out alright."
Speaking after the Donegal semi-final when the Galway scoreline matched their total in the 1998 final.
"It's been a tough, tough week for Galway football with the death of Johno. The 1-14 is a weird one, when the news came up to us last Sunday morning of his passing, we were obviously heartbroken.
“Obviously we shed a tear because the man has meant so much to me personally and to Galway players. Our WhatsApp group there from ‘98, ‘01, was hopping with stories.
“Lads were just really, really heartbroken, and you can't be heartbroken unless you love someone. So we loved him as a man, he was a great manager, he was a brilliant friend. Really good mentor as well to me over the last couple of years and I'll miss talking to him, I'll miss his phone calls, I'll miss his advice
"Semi-finals are for winning, as we know,” he stressed. “I know it's probably hard with the emotion when you're watching the game but overall I thought it was a brilliant game."
And so to the final post-match press conference this Sunday in the depths of Croke Park...
