Sticking to their style

NEWS:PÁDRAIC JOYCE has done and seen it all. He has even been lambasted for being past it a full two seasons back when still just 29. An old rivalry with Kerry takes place this Saturday back in Croke Park - the scene of the crime perpetrated against the Tribesmen in the 2000 All-Ireland football final replay.

That Galway returned the following season to be crowned champions for the second time in three years was a mark of John O'Mahony's team. It was also the point when they began that inevitable downward spiral of all great teams.

A few old hands still float around the panel but, much like the Clare hurlers' slow demise in the early part of this century, that great Galway team have grown old as their style has been eclipsed in the most public manner. If everything clicks into place they remain capable of one more heroic performance.

Considered the best footballer in Ireland seven years ago, Joyce is currently in All Star form.

The arrival of a new manager this season in Liam Sammon, a Galway man with a traditional footballing philosophy, has meant they continue to ignore the trends of the elite tier they once belonged to. Dublin and Kerry have evolved dramatically after realising their failings against physically superior sides like Armagh. They became stingier in defence.

Galway, like most counties, gave it a try but eventually reverted to more familiar ways.

They travel to Croke Park on Saturday to face the best team in the country - a Kerry side that is building momentum and evolving into a team to rival anything that has gone before in green and gold. And yet, Galway will stay true to themselves. Joyce explains: "We probably should but it is a bit hard in a week to change your style. It is very hard to turn into a defensive team, like the northern teams, it takes over five years. It's probably something we won't do."

And what of Sammon's way? "He has brought us back to a more attacking style which suits Galway. We have traditionally always had four or five very good forwards. The more we get the ball . . . "

At the tail end of the National League an inexperienced Galway were overrun by Kerry. Joyce felt the younger players were "in awe" of the Kerry jersey and let them pull clear down the stretch without must resistance.

Now it gets even more serious as they meet Kerry in their favourite hunting ground. That Declan Meehan and Joe Bergin are absent through injury hardly bodes well.

"I think it is very important we play in Croke Park. I think it will help our lads an awful lot. I know people might think the opposite of that but we have young lads who like carrying the ball. It is Kerry's second home at this stage but our lads will like the open spaces.

"I knew we were going to get them in the draw. That's just the way Galway is, we never get anything handed to us. If we got Wexford or Kildare we might have underestimated them and found ourselves in a dogfight right away. At least with Kerry you know what you have to do to beat them."

Two years ago, Westmeath dumped Galway out of the championship in Salthill. It was a disaster. Joyce came in for a fair amount of criticism. "Obviously when things go wrong they pick out the oldest one or two on the team and they are retired. They are no good. It's unfair in a way. They make you seem like you are the worst players on the team."

It was a mistake, an oversight but beating Kerry at this juncture would be a feat to put alongside the great days of 1998 and 2001.