By Pádraic Ó Ciardha

As usual, there were no excuses from Pádraic Joyce as he reflected on Saturday’s 0-22 to 0-14 loss to Dublin. Welcoming the All-Ireland champions to Pearse Stadium, Galway were given an opportunity to test themselves against the best but ended up coming up some way short.

“It was a disappointing performance from us overall, there is no doubt about that. We were given a bit of a lesson by Dublin. They were in control of the game from start to finish. The scoreline reflected that,” admitted the Galway manager.

With the hurling crowd departing and the weather and traffic worries keeping plenty of others away, Saturday wasn’t quite the occasion in Salthill that was hoped for, and the footballers’ slow start certainly didn’t do much to bring life to proceedings, something the manager regretted.

“We didn’t show enough aggression early on, like we said we would. We gave the ball away a lot as well in the first-half — 14, 15 times. Every time you do that against a good team they will punish you.

“They are experts. They are All-Ireland champions for a reason. They are so comfortable on the ball – finding space, making moves and they punish you every time,” said Joyce, although it was clear he thought his side might have shown their opponents too much respect.

“[Dublin] moved it well but there wasn’t a whole pile of pressure on them some of the time. We’d be disappointed in that from our end as management.”

Joyce also wanted more from his side in an attacking sense, going so far as to say they looked “fearful” in possession at times, a trait unlikely to be familiar to the manager and something which he said would be tackled as soon as possible.

“I definitely don’t think we performed to the level we’re capable of. We looked a bit passive at times with the ball and, I don’t know, a little bit fearful to go forward with it, which is not in our nature in Galway. We’ll address that during the week and get ready for Kerry at the weekend.”

Pictured: Galway’s Johnny Heaney battles for possession with Dublin’s Ross McGarry as Johnny McGrath of Galway and Dublin’s Ciaran Kilkenny look on in Pearse Stadium last Saturday. Photos: Joe O’Shaughnessy.