Galway boss Padraic Joyce has revealed that he has never put a drinking ban on his players as he doesn’t see it as a necessary measure.

For some time now, drinking bans have been put in place by GAA managers in order to prevent the possibility of their players’ performance in games being negatively affected by alcohol.

Speaking on the Smaller Fish GAA podcast, former Galway star Joyce revealed that he has never asked his players to stay away from alcohol completely as he trusts them to be primed and ready for a match on the day.

“I don’t think there’s an alcohol issue here with players,” said Joyce, who led the Tribesmen to an All-Ireland SFC final this past July.

“We took them on a night out at Christmas one time and the [owner] of the pub we were in actually came over to me and said, ‘Pádraic, what kind of lads have you here? We’ve ran out of milk.’

“They ran out of milk because some of them were drinking Tia Maria and milk. I don’t think they’re actually big drinkers nowadays. The players put so much time into their training, they’re not going to mess it away in two or three days.

“I’ve always allowed it. I’ve never had a drink ban in place with the lads. There’s no need because they’re such good fellas and they control themselves.

“But I do like when the game is over for lads to go together for an hour or two and have their food, have their few beers and even meet family members.”

“Some lads go home and some lads go to places that shouldn’t be going to for the rest of the night and that’s ok too”

Padraic Joyce on what Galway did after that ET win over Armagh with a semi final in two weeks

PS, love The Tia Maria part 🤣

Full show https://t.co/mVc5dkBdms pic.twitter.com/RqzaMjlAje

— Smaller Fish GAA (@SmallerFishGAA) October 14, 2022

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