Galway's Man of the Match Shane Walsh hailed his side's latest Connacht title success as the "sweetest one yet" after they overcame their old nemesis Roscommon in Pearse Stadium.
After a sluggish enough start, Padraic Joyce's side had rattled into a five-point lead at the break, courtesy of a brace of goals, the first of which was expertly converted by Walsh, the latter lashed into the top corner by Patrick Kelly after a shot rebounded off the post.
The hosts really accelerated clear in the third quarter, Walsh, Damien Comer and the eye-catching Rob Finnerty all filling their boots, pushing the lead out to nine at one stage.
Roscommon's rally came far too late to alter the contest, Diarmuid Murtagh blasting their second goal into the top corner, reducing the margin to three points in the game's final act.
"We'd done our homework done coming into it," Walsh told RTÉ Sport afterwards. "There was a bit of hurt after the league final, any final you get into, you want to win it. Everyone just dug in there today. That's a credit to the backroom team right to the last player in the squad.
"(All) set-ups are pretty similar these days. From our point of view, we just wanted to move the ball really quickly, focus on transition speeds, you see all the top teams doing it, Kerry and Dublin, that's what they're doing when they're trying to break a defence down.
'This is the sweetest one yet'
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 29, 2022
Player of the match Shane Walsh reflects on Galway's Connacht SFC final victory
Highlights tonight from 9.30
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"Our backs were excellent today. They've got a lot of stick over the last while. To a man there, they stood up. They were a driving force for the rest of us to finish it off.
For Walsh, it's a third Connacht title, following the successes of 2016 and 2018 and, remarkably, the county's first secured on home turf since 2005. They famously blew provincial titles at home to Rossies in both 2017 and 2019.
"This is the sweetest one yet because we actually hadn't won a Connacht title in Pearse Stadium.
"That was also a motivating factor coming in here today. No one in the squad had. Some of them there don't even have a Connacht title.
"For everyone, it's just a testament to all the work they've put in. The last few years, we probably didn't get where we wanted to go to. But in fairness, everyone just dug in and we got the rewards."
