Sice calls time on senior county career with Galway

GALWAY manager Kevin Walsh confirmed on Sunday that he will be without the services of Gary Sice, as the Corofin man has chosen to hang up his inter-county boots.

Sice, who is currently preparing for Corofin’s All-Ireland quarter-final re-fixture with Fulham Gaels in London, leaves behind a fine body of work in the maroon and white.
A student at St Jarlath’s College, he was part of that fabled team from 2002 who claimed the last of the 12 Hogan Cups the Tuam secondary school has won.
Like recent retirees Michael Meehan and Finian Hanley, Sice collected an All-Ireland U-21 medal in 2005 when Galway defeated Down in an incredible game that saw ten goals.
Sice was left-half back in Mullingar that day, and it was in this line of the field where he played for the first part of his inter-county career. He debuted for the Galway senior team in 2007, and won his first Connacht medal a year later when Galway beat Mayo 2-12 to 1-14 in Castlebar.
Already playing there for his club, the Belclare National School teacher settled very well into the role of a wing-forward over the past few seasons under Kevin Walsh.
Eight years after his first Connacht medal, he doubled his collection, scoring one of the goals of the 2016 All-Ireland Championship in Castlebar, as Galway brushed Roscommon aside in the Connacht final replay. Roscommon had their revenge in last July’s provincial decider in Salthill, and Sice replaced Johnny Heaney at half-time of that match, the final time he appeared for his county.
In the gold and green of Corofin, he has perhaps been consistently the best club player in the county. Sice has nine county medals in his back pocket, as well as five Connacht club medals.
On St Patrick’s Day in March of 2015, Sice was Corofin’s top scorer with five points in a 1-14 to 0-7 All-Ireland final victory over Derry’s Slaughtneil.