Galway great Padraic Joyce is at a loss as to why his county's talented young footballers haven't truly blossomed yet in the senior set-up.
The Tribesmen go into Sunday's final Division 2 game with an outside chance of relegation against basement-dwellers Kildare at Pearse Stadium.
Following a bright start, the Tribesmen floundered until last week's win over Roscommon.
And two-time All-Ireland winner Joyce, who was announced as part of Joe Kernan’s International Rules management team yesterday, admits it's been a "very mediocre" league for Kevin Walsh's men.
"Galway are coming a long with a young team under Kevin [Walsh]," Joyce told Newstalk's Oisin Langan. "We won the first two games I thought we were looking like we were going to get promoted.
"They really and truly need to get up to Division 1 to try and test themselves."
Staying in Division 2 is "huge" according to Joyce, who reckons relegation this weekend would "knock us back for a couple of years".
FULL TIME @Galway_GAA 1-14 @RoscommonGAA 1-10
— Tribesmen GAA (@TribesmenGAA) March 29, 2015
"Some lads we have that just haven't come through for us," the three-time All Star continued.
"We've had a lot of a pool of talent in the last couple of years that just haven't seemed to materialise.
"I don't know if that's the fault of the previous managers or the county board or whatever it is but lads just haven't been pulled through, haven't been looked after properly as well as they probably should be."
Joyce says he's looking forward to the challenge of being part of Kernan’s ticket for the Test in Croke Park on November 21, and will be looking for "mobile players" and "kick-passers" when he trawls Connacht for talent.
Padraig Joyce after winning the International Rules as captain in 2004 ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
