JOYCE GOES GENTLY INTO THE NIGHT
His playing days over, former Galway ace won’t be coaxed into another return
THIS time, it really is goodbye. There have been plenty of second acts in Gaelic football but Pádraic Joyce won’t be cajoled out of retirement for a third coming with Killererin. One of Galway’s greats won’t kick a ball in anger again. And he’s made his peace with that.
Last November, he signed off in one emotional, event-filled weekend. On the Saturday night, he was part of the Ireland management brains trust that masterminded victory over the strongest Australian selection ever to visit these shores in an edge-of-the-seat International Rules Test at Croke Park.
By mid-morning, after the celebrations took in the dawn chorus, he was winging his way to Moycullen to tog out one last time in his club colours.
The crowd that travelled from Killererin were there for a reason: to pay tribute to a player whose unique talent was flagged from the time he made his senior club debut at just 15, who went on to win just about everything the game has to offer – two All-Irelands with Galway, three All-Stars, even captaining Ireland to International Rules success himself.
Check out the footage online from the 1994 All-Ireland minor final and all the signposts to a great talent were there in one single point: the left and right foot solo, the shimmy to leave his marker on the ground, the dummy handpass to fool a second Kerry defender and then the snap-shot score from the most natural of left footers. A player who evolved from lethal finisher to cerebral playmaker as the years rolled on with Galway, the socks rolled up his trademark.
A talent whose final game was even marked by a presentation by opponents Moycullen − when they finally located him.
‘Afterwards, they wanted to clap me off the pitch but I’d the head down and was long gone!’ he laughs. ‘It was a lovely gesture. They gave me a nice voucher for the White Gables restaurant over there. I’ll head over some time when I get a free night.’
Drawing a line under his competitive career after a lifetime playing football hit him on the journey home. ‘It was very emotional heading back off down the road. I made sure I was in the jeep on my own, put it that way.
‘My father only passed away in October – normally I’d pick him up and bring him to the games. He’d be usually giving out or praising me on the road back or talking about who played well, didn’t play well. So that was there as well.
‘I’m lucky enough to be coming out of it injury free. I’m 38 coming 39 in April, so I’ve enough to do with workwise and everything.’
And this time there will be no persuading him to return. ‘There will be no wrangling. I retired two years ago and they wrangled me the following summer to come back and fight relegation. If they’re in relegation this year it’s their own fault – there’s not much more I can do for them.’
In a week when Cavan manager Terry Hyland pointed out how hard it is for modern inter-county players to balance a career with the game, Joyce understands the pressures of juggling football with trying to run a business, after setting up his own recruitment company PJ Personnel back in 2010.
Ican see where Terry Hyland is coming from. I spent three years at it where I was commuting from Galway to Dublin, driving up in the morning. It is very, very tough. We had a job supplying labour into the Mater Hospital so I had to be there for 7.30am, meeting lads, getting them inducted on jobs.
‘I was still playing. I was leaving the house at 5am, 5.30am, then going training. Trying to get your gym work done in between in a gym in Dublin. I used to just go in somewhere and pay the gym and get it done. It’s very, very hard.
‘Then you come home, trying to run your own business and you’ve the laptop on your knees, trying to get something to eat. And then go the following day as well. Going back to 2010, when I set up the company, I was doing 15, 16 hour days no hassle.
‘When you’re footballing away, it’s grand enjoying any glory years up to 26, 27, 28 – but from 28 onwards the spiral is going to come down a bit. You have to try and have yourself half set-up properly in terms of your career.
‘I’m not sure if enough GAA players realise that. Some are changing courses as they go. They are in colleges for seven, eight, nine years – they should be coming out with doctorates or something higher for all that time.
‘Some don’t want to do the hard work, put in the hard slog. They have to realise that when they’re finished GAA, there is only so many strength and conditioning jobs, only so many coaching manager’s jobs – they have to have some sort of work that they are qualified in.’
Being involved with Joe Kernan, Darragh Ó Sé and Dermot Earley in the Ireland management team for the International Rules test gave him an insight into the mindset of the game’s best players and what he sees as some of the flaws of the modern game.
‘We took in the elite of the country to training. They’re still the best footballers but they’re so routined, into their own programmes. Most inter-county managers have them brainwashed – “don’t give the ball away”, “mind the D” – this kind of stuff.
‘Maybe I’m daft in the head but I’d be of the opposite opinion. If I was over a team, I’d be always trying to push up. I’d be trying to keep shape, keep width, but my number 10 and number 12 would be a threat scoring, not a threat tracking back. They should kick a point or two apiece for the amount of ball that they’ll handle. You need your Paul Flynn-type player who’ll work back but also get forward and kick a score. ‘Dublin are the team to beat but thankfully Dublin, while they’re winning Sam Maguires they’re actually playing football along the way as well. They’re not gone overly-mad into defensive football.’ He expects this year’s All-Ireland to boil down to the usual suspects.
‘Unfortunately for the 2016 Championship, it’s Dublin in Leinster, Cork-Kerry in Munster, while Mayo are still the team to beat in Connacht. They’ve a new manager in Stephen Rochford who did great work with Corofin – I know the Corofin lads have great time for him, his footballing style and his footballing brain.
‘So Mayo are going to be in the last four, regardless. That’s where Stephen Rochford’s brain will come in – can he push them the little bit extra?
‘They have the players. I’ve seen Aidan O’Shea first-hand with the International Rules – I was amazed by him. The physical shape that he’s in and the footballing skill that he has for such a big man is improving all the time. If they can afford to let him in at full-forward in most games they’ll take beating.’
This afternoon, Joyce’s Galway take on Leitrim in the FBD League in Tuam. In terms of his native county’s prospects for 2016, he says Galway need time to bridge the divide.
‘It will not be bridged quickly. Definitely not in the next year, that’s for sure. Dublin, Kerry, Mayo, possibly Donegal, are still the teams. Maybe Tyrone joining that group.
‘For Galway, it’s not going to happen in 12 months. It’s going to take time to get lads in physical shape. A mountain of hard work.’
In the meantime, with a growing family, he has other things to take up his time rather than training and playing. ‘I’d a young son Charlie about six months ago so we’re trying to get him soloing the ball and hopping the ball at the minute.’
No doubt a pair of knee-length socks have already been ordered.
I’m lucky to be coming out of it injury free. I’m 38, coming 39 in April....