Pádraic Joyce bemoans ‘nasty stamp’ on Comer, Harte points to injuries and illness
Damien Comer of Galway reacts to being fouled by Gareth McKinless of Derry, resulting in the Derry player being sent off, during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 1 match between Galway and Derry at Pearse Stadium in Galway. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
For Pádraic Joyce, there were so many positives. After a third provincial title in a row, Galway saw off Derry 2-14 to 0-15 in Pearse Stadium.
Five of their six starting forwards scored. Shane Walsh scored two points and assisted another 1-1. Cillian McDaid made his long-awaited return. It is their seventh clean sheet in a row between league and championship.
“Our backs have been to the wall,” said Joyce post-match. “It’s alright me being out here trying to put a brave face on it. We had a horrendous league campaign with injuries and injuries all the time, and not alone that but they were to our marquee players.
“It’s no disrespect to the lads that kept us in Division 1 and they probably didn’t get enough praise for doing it, but when lads started coming back, the week before the Mayo game was actually the first time we played a 15 v 15 in training all year, which is tough going.
“But in the last couple of weeks since the Mayo game we got a lift after that. The boys celebrated Sunday night and Monday, but we parked it Tuesday night and got focused on this Derry game. Hats off to the lads, they put a huge effort into it and got their reward.”
It could come at a cost. Damien Comer was taken off early in the second half. Midway through the first, Gareth McKinless was sent off for a stamp on the full-forward. Comer came off for treatment and played on until the 46th minute when he broke down again. Joyce was unsure of his condition.
“Don’t know, but he got a nasty stamp in the ankle so…. He got on with that, but it just gave way in the end there now. It was a horrendous thing to do, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
Captain Sean Kelly was replaced yet is “ok” while Robert Finnerty limped off after “a bad knock on the knee.”
Meanwhile, Derry manager Mickey Harte said he did not see the red card incident.
“I didn’t see it. Another thing, I don’t believe it was even a foul in the first place. That is what I think. I think there should be no free in the first place. I don’t know what happened after that.”
Despite back-to-back defeats, Harte was bullish about their performance and future prospects. He pointed to Shane McGuigan’s missed goal chance as crucial. Galway went up the other end and scored their second goal from the counterattack.
Derry lined out without Padraig McGrogan (ACL) while Eoin McEvoy and Conor Doherty were withdrawn before throw-in. Niall Loughlin and Cormac Murphy were also not included in the 26.
“We played very good football to stay in the game,” Harte said. “We played with a lot of energy. We got a lot of what we didn’t get against Donegal. A real quality performance in terms of the energy our players brought to it. It is harsh, we could have been level and suddenly we are six points down. If that goal had gone in, it’d have been really interesting to see how the last 10 or 15 minutes go.
“We managed the game well considering we were a man down. We asked for energy, we asked for a performance from the players. I am very happy that we got it.”
He continued: “I think it is still a very credible performance with 14 men. Considering Conor Glass was under the weather too. He was sick the last few days, you have to factor that in as well and consider the people we were missing from our team. Starters the last couple of years, seriously good starters. It was a massive fight from the people that we had available to us day.”
They travel to Armagh next before a final round clash with Westmeath. It means Derry are likely facing a route through the preliminary quarter-final. That won’t faze him.
“Sometimes you have to go the road you are sent, as fate would have it. I’ve been down a few of those roads before and we managed it rightly.”
