Joyce enjoys ‘pure performance’ by super Saints

St Gerald’s College manager David Joyce hailed a good all-round performance from his team on Sunday afternoon.

The Castlebar side claimed their eighth Connacht title with a two-point win over Coláiste Bhaile Chláir (Claregalway College) at the Centre of Excellence in Bekan.

Joyce said they did not take their achievement for granted and felt they had something to prove having fallen to defeat against the same opposition earlier in the campaign.

“We don’t take for granted a Connacht title, that is massive in schools football. We started off this year and lost our first game to Claregalway and knew that we’d face them again eventually down the line and that we’d have to be at our best to beat them. 

“The lads were fantastic, they worked hard and tackled hard. We got some massive scores at big times and handled the setback of a goal in the second-half really well and got over the line in the end.” 

He said his team put in a ‘pure performance’ of Gaelic football.

“That’s the beauty of schools football, the game is at its purest form. Moving the ball quick on the first touch, runners supporting.

“Our boys played with a bit of freedom and they’re not afraid of anything. Not afraid to go with it when the shot is on and I thought it was a complete team performance altogether.

“We had corner-backs winning balls on our goal line, we had full-backs breaking through the line, we had everything. A massive performance all around and that’s what we expect, that’s what we set out to do, that everybody from one to thirty, when you get your moment, you work hard for this team.” 

David Joyce had particular praise for Dara Neary. The Parke-Keelogues-Crimlin attacker scored four fine points from play, each one better than the last, and his 59th-minute strike off his left foot put a four-point gap between the teams, which left Claregalway with an uphill battle.

“Dara had four great points today from play and especially the one off the left at the end. Dara works so hard all the time, he’s a skilful, talented player.

“Today was his day, we had other lads step up in group matches and semi-finals and today, he stepped up for us.

“In fairness, he got the scores but in the ten or twenty seconds before that, we have a lot of lads working hard to get him in a position to do that.” 

The result has nonetheless left Joyce and his management with a few things to iron out but he said that’s just the norm with managing such a young team.

“With young lads at times, their decision-making coming out of the back can be a little bit questionable but that is what we are here to do. To teach them to learn from those mistakes and hopefully going to the next round, we’ll improve on that.” 

St Gerald’s will face Ulster opposition in the next round of the competition, an All-Ireland semi-final, with this fixture’s date and time yet to be confirmed.