GALWAY MANAGER PÁDRAIC Joyce said that ‘it’s a joke’ that they have to travel to Monaghan for their relegation play-off and he doesn’t believe Séamus McEnaney’s men should have home advantage after breaking Covid rules around training during lockdown.
“I’m just after being told it is away because they had no home games and we had two home games so they are being rewarded for breaking a curfew and I find that unbelievable to be honest,” said Joyce.
“It’s a joke if you ask me and I don’t know how Croke Park came up with that solution to play in Monaghan. We will play wherever it is on but I think it disrespects the whole system and the whole Allianz League if you are going rewarding a county to get a home vital game when you broke the rules.”
Avoiding the drop is now the main priority for Joyce in his second year in charge but, for the third year in a row, Damien Comer is a major doubt for the start of the championship having picked up a hand injury in the win over Roscommon last week.
“He is one of our better players so it is a huge injury blow. He is going to be out for three, four, or five weeks. He did his thumb last Sunday against Roscommon, he played on with it in the second half, but he has taken the tendon off the bone. He is in a bit of bother and is in a race against time to be fit for the Championship.
“This is his third year in a row so he needs some sort of break, at least it isn’t a muscle injury. He may be able to do some conditioning work. If he comes back in time he will just need the ball handling skills to go with it. Before he had leg injuries which stopped him training,” added Joyce.
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I see where he is coming from but even if Monaghan didn’t break the rules, they would still have had home advantage because they had less home games.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: Galway should get Home Advantage because they finished 3rd in their group, whereas Monaghan finished bottom of theirs.
Aagh your always whinging Joyce
With Galway chasing the game in the last few minutes he threw the ball away from a dublin player on the sideline
@John O Reilly: God the callousness.
Rules were set in January.
Aaagh you’re always whinging Joyce
It will tough trying to beat Monaghan at home
@Finnster: Galway showed plenty of fighting spirit and determination today v Dublin. If they can repeat that v Monaghan, I give them a really good chance of getting a win
Possibly should focus on his team’s results which were poor. Monaghan punishment was light for sure but the time to address was when the punishments were been handed out, not retrospectively.
I believe Monaghan in the spirit of goodwill should offer to move to a neutral venue.If it’s rejected well it will get nice PR for the Country
GAA treats cheats like heroes! What’s new?
@Liam O’Flaherty: they haven’t treated Dublin like hero we broke the rules and have no home games Monahan break the rules as well and get a home game,one rule for one another set for Dublin and people say the GAA give us everything not home matches and we still haven’t lost a match
@Moya Power-kelly: When the draw was made in January Dublin like Cork, Monaghan & Kerry and many others got 1 home & 2 away games. Because of breaking the rules both Cork & Dublin lost their home advantage (as did Down). Teams that had only 1 home game in the league stage were given home advantage in the semi stage if they were playing team that had 2 away league game, with toss for home advantage if both teams had the same number of home games in the league section.
Back in January they were also probably more worried about Covid so they decided no neutral venues for the semis.
Croke Park didn’t set out to disadvantage any county but they correctly punished those that were caught breaking the rules.
Get the excuses in early padraic