IN a game increasingly bleached of spontaneity, Padraic Joyce's loss to Gaelic football feels like another blow to the solar plexus.
After a decade and a half of fighting Galway's cause, Joyce's retirement – allied to Brian McGuigan's departure in Tyrone – means that next year's championship will be deprived of two of the most intelligently creative minds the modern game has seen.
We can but pray they'll soon be back on the high-wire, wearing bibs.




