1) Can Shamrock Rovers be caught?
Rovers are aiming for a third title in a row, and have already put themselves in a strong position by avoiding the off-season churn of their rivals. They’ve lost Joey O’Brien to retirement – he has become Damien Duff’s assistant at Shels – and have added proven quality with the return of Jack Byrne and Andy Lyons’ cross-town move from Bohemians.
Rovers won the league by 16 points last year, though manager Stephen Bradley has been focusing minds ahead of this season by stressing the reality was more narrow than the final maths. In a way he’s right: Rovers collected 16 points courtesy of goals scored in the last five minutes of league games last year, but that partly speaks to their depth, which remains frightening at this level.
Forecasting issues for Rovers feels a little like straw-clutching, but Bradley will have a task in keeping everyone in his squad content. Rovers’ system is probably best described as a 3-4-2-1, so how to pick two No. 10s from Byrne, Danny Mandroiu, Richie Towell, Graham Burke, and Dylan Watts? (Watts, in fairness, can play in a deeper role.)
Keeping Gary O’Neill fit at the base of midfield will be important for Rovers, while O’Brien’s leadership will undoubtedly be a loss to the dressing room. There are far fewer question marks around Rovers going into the new season, however, and for that fact alone they remain the league’s red-hot favourites.
2) Can Derry City position themselves as the main challengers?
Derry City chairman Philip O’Doherty sold his engineering business for €1.7 billion last September and the squad has seen an instant return, with the off-season arrivals of Michael Duffy, Patrick McEleney, Will Patching and Cameron Dummigan from Dundalk. There have been other notable signings, including the highly promising Irish U21 goalkeeper Brian Maher, playmaker Brandon Kavanagh from Shamrock Rovers, and Matty Smith, so impressive for Pat’s last year.
Ruaidhri Higgins left Stephen Kenny’s staff to take the Derry job midway through last season and signalled his promise as a manager by guiding them to European football. Derry are among the most unique football clubs in Europe – and are the centre-piece of their city in a way few League of Ireland clubs are – but they haven’t won the title since 1997. Higgins says it’s “probably unrealistic” for Derry to instantly bridge the gap to Rovers, but there will be expectation that they at least narrow it.
3) A new derby game
The Premier Division isn’t lacking in derby games given half the division is made of Dublin clubs, but the off-season brought forth a new derby game: St Patrick’s Athletic vs Dundalk.
Stephen O’Donnell led Pat’s to the FAI Cup and then promptly left to become the Head Coach of his old club Dundalk, who are back in local ownership following the sale by dysfunctional American investment fund Peak6.
Pat’s have initiated High Court proceedings against O’Donnell alleging breach of contract, while O’Donnell says he acted appropriately, saying his joining Dundalk was his legal right.
Brian Kerr captured the mood at Richmond Park by calling O’Donnell’s decision “disgraceful.” John Mountney, Sam Bone and Robbie Benson – scorer of the winning penalty in Pat’s Cup success – have followed O’Donnell to Oriel Park, while Pat’s have replaced him with the highly-rated Tim Clancy, who brought and then kept Drogheda in the Premier Division last year.
There is also a perception that O’Donnell’s exit made it easier for Garrett Kelleher to find the money to recruit striker Eoin Doyle from England, who looks a good bet to finish as the league’s top scorer.
But mark your calendar: the two sides’ first meeting is at Richmond Park on 8 April.
4) Damien Duff makes his managerial debut
Much of the pre-season attention is trained on the endlessly fascinating character of Damien Duff. For a long time it seemed as if Duff would stick to youth coaching, but he stepped up to replace Ian Morris in the off-season and take charge of Shelbourne on their return to the Premier Division. (Morris’ memorable sum-up of his time in charge: won the league, won Manager of the Year, got the bullet.)
Duff is equally plain-speaking, and has described tonight’s opening game with Pat’s as his biggest day in football. For a man largely averse to media attention, gold nonetheless falls from his mouth whenever there’s a microphone close.
From this week’s pre-match press conference alone…
Playing football was natural to me since I was six or seven, I grew up with a ball at my feet. Whereas this, I never had any plans. I retired at 35, dipped my toe in the coaching. I was shit at it. Decided to try and work hard and get better. That’s how I’ve ended up here, I guess.
…and…
Everyone’s problem is my problem. When did I take the job? November. I haven’t had one day where it’s been a clear easy ride. Always been some shit to deal with it. More often than not, more than one piece of shit. I remember at Celtic, Brendan (Rodgers) said to me ‘in management you’re always knee deep in shit and some days it goes up to your waist, make sure it doesn’t go to your neck’. I can see that.
Duff has built an entirely new squad in the off-season, so it’s nigh-on impossible to accurately predict how they’ll do this season. What is undeniable is that the whole show will be utterly compelling.
5) Can Sligo and Bohemian’s deal with the churn?
The LOI off-season is usually a story of departures and this was no different. Sligo and Bohs meet tomorrow night, both having been largely decimated by departures. Sligo’s exodus was smaller in numbers but arguably more significant, with teenage striker Johnny Kenny moving to Celtic and their excellent defender John Mahon also pitching up in Scotland.
Bohs, meanwhile, have lost five of their starting XI from the FAI Cup final, including top scorer Georgie Kelly, attacker Ross Tierney, captain Keith Buckley, and defender-cum-jersey-model, Rob Cornwall. Striker Promise Omochere has stepped into Cornwall’s promotional role: nominative determinism will play a role if he is to replace Kelly’s goals.
6) The basement battle
UCD were promoted through the play-offs and are pretty much everyone’s favourites to go straight back down. They have largely held onto to their promotion-winning team – Paul Doyle moving to Dundalk the exception – but retaining players when the July window opens and players’ studies have concluded will be a bigger challenge.
Irish U21 striker Colm Whelan was courted by some of the league’s top clubs but has stayed put for now, but the fact he’s recently signed up with Jorge Mendes’ Polaris agency means he may be on the move soon. They have some other exciting young players in the form of Liam Kerrigan and Evan Caffrey, but their season will likely be a slog.
Drogheda and Finn Harps meet on the opening night, and budgets dictate that game might be the league’s earliest-ever six-pointer. Kevin Doherty has stepped up from the assistant role to replace Tim Clancy at Drogs, and has made some interesting signings, most notably the loan arrival of defender Sean Roughan from Lincoln, who was on trial with Chelsea and Southampton as recently as last May.
And Harps, led by the great survivor, Ollie Horgan, have cast their net wider than anyone else to compensate for their financial disadvantages. Hence their squad this year includes a Spanish defender signed from Slovakia, a Dutch-born centre-back who last played in the Turkish third tier, and a Croatian striker signed from the Cambodian league who played a trial game for Harps under the pseudonym Rey Mysterio.
Harps are consistently tipped for relegation and they consistently avoid it, which has made Horgan look like a kind of yerra laureate.
“We’re probably the only easy game for other teams”, he told us at last week’s league launch.
Yeah, right.
7) The evolution will rarely be televised
Television coverage is a consistently contentious point in the League, and this year is unlikely to be different. The LOI TV streaming service was introduced in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, was retained last year and re-introduced this year too, though with the (excellent value) season pass now removed to protect attendances.
Meanwhile, RTÉ will show just 15 live games over the season – a couple at the beginning before then returning for the closing few weeks – with the games once shown on the now-defunct eir Sport still yet to find a home.
Meanwhile, there’s no stand-alone highlights programme announced for television broadcast, and there’s no guarantee the Irish sides’ European qualifiers will be shown on TV in the summer, either. (You may remember Bohs and Dundalk’s games with PAOK and Vitesse weren’t broadcast, to general chagrin.)
All games can be watched on LOI TV, in fairness, but the lack of a weekly television fix makes it much harder for fans to get into the rhythm of watching games and remain up-to-date with the season’s ebbs and flows.
The FAI remain hopeful another broadcaster will enter the equation: one would imagine the slightly subversive qualities of the LOI and TG4 would make them a perfect match.
Premier Division Fixtures (KO 7.45pm unless stated)
Friday
Dundalk vs Derry City
Shelbourne vs St Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps vs Drogheda United (8pm)
Shamrock Rovers vs UCD (8pm)
Saturday
Bohemians vs Sligo Rovers
Gavan Casey is joined by Bernard Jackman and Murray Kinsella to discuss the prospect of South Africa replacing Italy in the Six Nations and reflect on Ireland’s performance in Paris, before looking ahead to the URC action this weekend.
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
