Pádraic Joyce is to continue as Galway senior football manager for a seventh season in 2026 and beyond but coach John Divilly is stepping away.
Joyce’s current three-year term doesn’t elapse until the end of next season but he has been offered and agreed to an extension of a further two years to 2028. Dublin-based Divilly, his fellow two-time All-Ireland winner, has been part of his set-up since the Killererin man succeeded Kevin Walsh in 2020 but is taking a year out.
John Concannon, Micheál Ó Domhnaill and former Cavan manager Mickey Graham were the other members of Joyce’s management this past season. Concannon and Ó Domhnaill have also been assisting the 48-year-old from the outset.
Joyce guided Galway to a fourth consecutive Connacht title this year, the first time the county have achieved the feat since the 1960s. However, they were later defeated by Meath in an All-Ireland quarter-final after reaching last year’s All-Ireland final, their second in the space of three seasons.
It is expected Joyce will add another figure to his sideline in the coming weeks. Graham came in for this past season after Cian O’Neill departed following three years of involvement and joined Kerry.
Meanwhile, the Wicklow County Board are expected to issue disciplinary sanctions against Carnew Emmets and Rathnew following a row during the clubs’s senior football quarter-final in Aughrim on Saturday.
Players and supporters were involved in the unseemly scenes towards the end of the game in Echelon Park and the board are considering the referee Darragh Byrne’s report before proposing penalties.
Carnew won the game by nine points in a game also marred by an onfield row at the end when two Rathnew players were dismissed.
Elsewhere, the GAA are to return with a new motion relating to the production of playing gear. At Congress in February, a proposal to bring the GAA in line with EU competition law was withdrawn following strong lobbying against it by counties.
The motion, which had been recommended by the GAA’s commercial department, proposed amending the GAA Official Guide that states all playing gear shall be made by an Irish manufacturer to one that is officially licensed by the GAA.
Following consultation with counties, a new proposal is to be discussed at next month’s Special Congress which Croke Park believe will ensure the GAA is in compliance with the EU legislation.
The GAA is currently finalising official kit licensees with a mind to their contracts commencing in January of next year. Part of the assessment process involved the association officials visiting manufacturing sites.