THERE THEY ARE in the corner, thick as thieves with big, happy heads on them.
Plotting, scheming, laughing.
Darragh Leahy and Daniel Grant are all smiles, even if now they’re wearing different tracksuits. “Miss each other? Not at all,” Grant insists, as he grabs his pal in a hug.
“No, no chance,” Leahy replies. “Ah, maybe a bit, yeah. He’s alright, I suppose.”
Leahy joined Dundalk from Bohemians over the winter while Grant, his Republic of Ireland U21 teammate, signed an extension to his contract at Dalymount Park last summer.
Last season may have been their first together at any level but, even though injuries to both restricted their relationship on the pitch, they still grew close.
“I was out, then he was out, then I was out, it’s a shame really that we could never get things going down that left side,” winger Grant says, while the champions’ new left back explains his reasoning for the move to Oriel Park.
“We finished the season very well at Bohs, we got third spot and qualified for European football for the first time in a long while for the club.
“That was something for everyone to be proud of. But it’s very hard to turn down the league champions when they want you. I felt like it was a no brainer in the end.”
Leahy and Grant have spent this pre-season apart, reunited for a couple of hours at yesterday’s launch for the new season at the National Indoor Arena in west Dublin.
The sandwich and wrap platters on offer were demolished, while empty tea and coffee cups lay strewn across the tables as journalists whizzed around the room to grab managers and players.
This was speed dating, League of Ireland style.
A selection of pastries were provided and this allowed for an easy segue to discussing Danny’s mother, Julie, and her generous baking offerings throughout the 2019 campaign for Keith Long’s squad.
“Those cakes!” Leahy beams. “We could always rely on them for those long trips, up to Finn Harps or Sligo Rovers or Cork City.
“Yeah, but there were times that if we lost I wasn’t going around handing out cupcakes down the bus. No chance I’d do that,” Grant points out.
Seeing his pal leave for pastures new was bittersweet, but the 19-year-old has concerns of his own in 2020. “I have to kick on now and this year I just have to play, it’s simple really. I had my injuries last season so I have to get a good run and put in the performances.
People always says we overachieve at Bohs and hopefully we can do that again. I suppose it’s just people’s opinions of us, you look at the resources we have, it’s a lot less than other clubs, so people view what we have done as overachieving.”
Grant is in the second year of his three-year business management degree in Maynooth University.
“I go to college in the mornings and train in the evenings,” he explains. “It works well. There are no cliques in the dressing room and everyone gets on, they really do.
“I suppose it will be a bit different this year because there will be more expectation on us after retaining the players that we have but we still signed eight or nine new lads, Dundalk and Rovers have probably only done that between them, so there is still a big turnover there. It will take us a while to settle but I think we will be able to kick on again.”
Bohs are part-timers on a full-time schedule, their training base at Blanchardstown IT used four times a week.
It has meant that Leahy’s transition to the environment with Dundalk – gym and training work in the mornings and early afternoons – hasn’t been too much of a shock to the system. The 21-year-old had a taste of that life in England during his brief spell with Coventry City, and the pre-season trip to Spain last month also proved beneficial.
It was there, alongside new signings Greg Sloggett and Will Patching, that he was able to integrate into the group, having already begun a Dublin carpool from his home in Swords alongside Dano ‘Dickie’ Kelly and Sean Gannon.
It has been very easy to settle in. It is very similar to Bohs, the dressing rooms are very good. They’re two of the best I’ve ever been involved in. There are lads here with a bit more experience, just because of how successful they have been.
“It’s a younger group at Bohs but so far things have been good. That time away in Spain was really tough, it was hard going with the training and games but in terms of bonding and getting to know the lads it was perfect.
“We got to know each other and what we’re aiming for. Dundalk won the league last year and that’s the target again. They came so close to doing the treble so we want to go one better domestically and go as far as possible in Europe.”
That is the serious business, and certainly no laughing matter.
