It would be difficult to find a more perfect embodiment of the Galway footballing blueblood tradition than Pádraic Joyce.
His career reads like a how-to manual in becoming a Galway football icon, as scripted by one of the 20th century elders in St Jarlath's.
Become a star player on a Jarlath's Hogan Cup winning team, win a bunch of Connacht titles, win your couple of All-Irelands, get Man of the Match in one of the finals, hug Sean Purcell in the dressing room afterwards.
Add in four county titles with Killererin - needless to say, Joyce was the chief orchestrator on the field for all of these - and now a stint as manager, where he's led the county to the cusp of glory.
Born in the village of Bearna Dhearg, just south of Tuam, also birthplace to a certain Sunday Game presenter of 35 years standing, Joyce's family home was occasionally a stop-off for Galway football legends from the black and white era.
"My father, God rest him, didn't really play much football but my uncle Billy would have played at lot. You'd always kind of be steeped in that kind of stuff.
"When we made our communion, we put our money towards a pool table in the house - something really worthwhile!
"Billy could land in there any time of the day with God knows who. I remember one particular night he came in with Mattie McDonagh.
"Me and Tommy (brother) and Billy and Mattie were playing doubles in pool all night and just talking football.
"I've always been in that football environment. Football has been a huge part of my life."
The peak years of Joyce's inter-county career were the early ones. He was marginally the top scorer in a thrilling ensemble forward line in 1998.
Watching Match of the Day in the Berkeley Court Hotel on the eve of the final, his roommate Michael Donnellan, through a mouthful of sandwich, told Joyce he'd round the keeper in a manner akin to Alan Shearer that weekend. It took him until the first few minutes after half-time to fulfil the prophecy as Galway blew Kildare away.
Three years later, he kicked 0-10 in a surreal second-half demolition of Meath, as Galway became the first back-door All-Ireland champions.
Joyce stayed around longer than any of his '98-01 teammates, latterly slipping into the role of elegant, tall-socked playmaker on the '40, but Galway steadily dropped off the pace, eventually to the point where the leading contenders were only specks in the distance.
"I probably played... some might say too long. But I played on a good bit. You're watching your team-mates, your good friends, retiring year after year. I just felt like I was still able to give something.
"But I was part of teams that lost a lot of championship matches by a point. Wexford beat us one year. Westmeath beat us. Not saying anything about those teams but we lost a lot of games by a point here, a point there.
"Obviously when I retired, I said I'd like to go into management at some stage. I got involved with my club in underage management. But then the opportunity came up in '19 to take over the (Galway) 20s, which I jumped at.
"As luck would have it, Kevin was finished the following year. There wasn't a huge queue for the Galway senior football management in 2020 bar myself and the late Liam Kearns. We had plenty of conversations, the two of us, in the corridors, which was great.
"The county board probably had no option but to give it to the local lad, more so than anything else."
His uncle Billy Joyce played for Galway during their nearly-men phase in the 1970s and early 80s. He lost three All-Ireland finals in four years in 1971, 1973 and 1974 and then came on as a veteran sub in the infamous 1983 decider.
The dreadful optics of the '83 defeat - losing with two extra men, etc - were so traumatic for Galway football that they ceased to be even nearly men for a long while after.
Nonetheless, he retained that Joyce confidence. "In my day, beating Mayo was like going to Mass," Billy told the Irish Examiner last year, a rather more bullish sentiment than the one subsequently put out there by the Saw Doctors.
That one meant a lot to Padraic Joyce - Galway secure three in a row in Connacht for the first time since 1984 #GAA pic.twitter.com/IiluJCVADZ
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 5, 2024
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