'I'm not going to make any rash decisions'

Padraic Joyce refused to be drawn on his future as Galway manager following his side’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final defeat to Meath.

The surprise loss brought the curtain down on Joyce’s sixth season in charge, during which time he raised the county’s stock but failed to deliver the Sam Maguire, losing All-Ireland finals to Kerry and Armagh in 2022 and ’24 respectively.

“We’ve just gone out of the Championship so I’m not going to make any rash decisions,” he told the assembled media at Croke Park.

“We’ll sit and chat with the county board. There’s a lot of lads in there with decisions to make about next year as well, as we have as management, so we will do that in due course.

“The county board have always been very supportive of me and the players so we will sit down and get things properly organised. Whatever will be will be. There will be no statements or no rushes to be coming out with things over the next day or two anyway.”

Despite claiming Daniel O’Flaherty was fouled in the lead-up to Meath’s first goal and having an issue with the hooter controversy at the end, Joyce conceded that the better team won.

“They won the breaking ball battle all day out in the middle of the pitch,” he noted.

“They were very sharp inside as well. We didn’t really get enough to put them away. They hung in the game very well and congratulations to them.”