Padraic Joyce: 2023 a 'poor season overall' for Galway

Galway manager Padraic Joyce described their 2023 campaign as a "poor season overall", admitting they had no one to blame but themselves for their early exit from the championship.

Having been pitched into a nightmare preliminary quarter-final against neighbours Mayo following the concession of a late winner against Armagh last weekend, Galway were unable to protect a five-point half-time lead when facing into a stiff breeze after the break.

A third-quarter surge put Mayo in a commanding position and despite a rally in the closing stages, Galway couldn't retrieve the situation and wound up beaten by a point.

It means that the 2022 All-Ireland finalists - even tentatively installed as favourites by many observers early in the round-robin phase - tumble out of the championship at the preliminary quarter-final stage.

Speaking to a scrum of reporters in bowels of Pearse Stadium afterwards, Joyce bluntly declared it a "poor season" for Galway.

"The competition is the competition. We've no one to blame but ourselves. Remember that. Mayo were probably a bit better than us today. But we just missed too much.

"Even last week against Armagh... we shouldn't have been in this position here today. But we are and we're out in the championship now. It's a bitter pill to swallow.

"We had the same points in the group [as Armagh] and the best scoring difference. But we've no one to blame but ourselves for that. We didn't win the game or draw the game last week. We just have to accept it and move on from it. That's all we can do.

"It's a very, very disappointing year. That's the bottom line. There's no point trying to gloss it over. We won Connacht, lost the league final, wasn't a bad year [in that sense]. But being knocked out before the