John Fallon: Missing out on Seani Maguire didn't derail Shamrock Rovers in end
OVER THE LINE: Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley celebrates after the game against Sligo Rovers. INPHO/Ryan Byrne
A ball hadn’t been kicked in the League of Ireland season when a nugget from a Stephen Bradley interaction testified to what Shamrock Rovers needed to retain their title.
It was late January at the league launch in Whelan’s pub, Dublin when the prospects of a rock star signing for the champions was consuming the narrative.
Relegation wasn’t in the script for Seani Maguire when the Irish international returned to Cork City 18 months earlier but an upcoming First Division campaign for the sharpshooter had suitors hovering.
Bradley was one of those.
He was a long-time admirer of the Kilkenny native and at 31 felt his nous and predatory instincts were ideal for their title defence.
Bear in mind too that on that day Rovers had accepted a €1.8m bid for Michael Noonan from TSG Hoffenheim and the manager spoke in language expecting the formalities to be completed by the looming transfer deadline.
As is the way of these events, one manager queued after another to address the media and, in this case, City’s new chief Barry Robson was poised to replace Bradley in the hot seat surrounded by journalists.
As the changeover occurred, the younger of the two couldn’t help but deliver a quip as they briefly passed each other. “Send Maguire up to us, there”.
If Robson saw the funny side, he certainly didn’t show it and the stern way he dealt with the opening couple of questions on his star striker’s future affirmed his stance.
City’s owner Dermot Usher had already accompanied his rebuffing of a derisory bid from the Hoops for Maguire with a directive to stay away.
“I was always of the opinion that every player in the world is for sale,” lamented Bradley afterwards. “Supposedly not but that is Cork’s business.”
Maguire soon added a year to his City contract and was prepared to play the long game in pursuit of ambitions before he hangs up his boots.
Because both Bradley and Robson won their respective titles, they’ll replicate this year’s FAI Cup tie in 2027 at least four times.
Rovers approach that campaign with the immortality of seven titles in eight seasons in their sights but nobody could claim they’re reaching that crescendo with a canter.
This was the year that rivals, Bohemians and St Patrick’s Athletic, failed to capitalise on the Rovers lapses along the route. That the Gypsies endured a nine-match winless sequence between March 16 and May 8, collecting just six points, will ultimately hurt them when the dust settles after Friday’s concluding series of matches.
St Pat’s, too, will look back in anger. They usurped Rovers for top spot just five weeks ago on goal difference by hammering Dundalk, only to collapse with back-to-back defeats to Shelbourne and Derry City during a three-day period. We’ll never know if that protracted 27-day gap in games either side of the international window contributed.
Both have every reason to believe this was the year to end their title drought and dethrone their Dublin rivals.
With this Friday’s trophy celebration in Dundalk left to play, Rovers have averaged 1.94 points per game.
That’s slightly higher than the 2025 equivalent when they lost one more game, eight, but less than their successes in 2023 (2 points per game), 2022 (2.2) and 2021 (2.17).
And one can only wonder if the absence of Maguire’s firepower at Rovers was a factor in presenting the chances to steal the riches.
Noonan spurned the Bundesliga opportunity to stick around but the teen only surpassed the six-goal tally of his maiden season by one.
He wasn’t alone in being goal-shy in the league as John McGovern was the only Hoops to reach double-figures. Six players from other clubs were ahead of him in the scoring charts.
That’s nothing new for a Rovers side that tends to share the goals around.
Their 2025 title was clinched with Rory Gaffney as their top scorer with nine, back in eight place.
Graham Burke was the attacker to supply the crucial goals, eight last year followed by nine this term.
Rovers did bolster their striking resources in the summer by capturing Jonathan Afolabi but he arrived from Belgium carrying an injury and has been a peripheral figure.
Despite their struggles in Europe, failing to reach the group stages for the first time in three years, Rovers’ season is defined by their league placing. The most recent tends to be the sweetest and with the ever-increasing bounty from the Champions League filling their coffers the scope to rectify some squad shortages is there in the off-season. With Gaffney retired, Noonan off to Nottingham Forest and Aaron Greene heading for 37, a striker will be their priority. They’re unlikely to miss their new target this time.
Safeguarding issues continue to leave the FAI scrambling with an independent company recently appointed to conduct a review of their procedures and systems.
It was evident from their visit to the Oireachtas sports committee seven weeks ago that a proper grasp of this area and Garda vetting was lacking.
A subsequent public admission that ‘inconsistences’ existed within their centralised Connect system triggered a deluge of coaches and referees seeing their profiles deactivated.
It’s understood the company Safe Sport International were recommended by state agency Sport Ireland and are due to report on their trawl next month.
That will be timely for the FAI’s next visit to Leinster House in December as chairman, Alan Kelly TD, indicated a follow-up was required to deal with unanswered questions around the degree of oversight the Irish football hierarchy possesses in this field.
“We are pivoting the organisation from a child welfare and safeguarding focus to an expanded adult and child welfare safeguarding focus,” chief executive David Courell told the committee. “We are at the front of the pack with regard to this.”
Clearly, not everybody is convinced about that proclamation.
Six weeks out from the most important home game in Ireland’s women’s football history and the quest for a sell-out is intensifying.
Ewa Pajor’s placing as runner-up behind Alexia Putellas as the women’s Ballon D’Or winner should warn Ireland of the threat Poland carry but being the seeded team for a World Cup playoff final provides a headstart.
For starters, the first leg is away in Gdansk, meaning all roads to Lansdowne Road on Saturday, December 5.
The 5pm kick-off, three weeks before Christmas lends itself to a family-friendly turnout but the key to filling the 51,000-seater was the ticket pricing point.
Whereas adult tickets being pitched at €20 were instrumental in the first-ever game at the national stadium, against Northern Ireland in 2023, attracting 35,994, these singles cost €25.
Much like the increase of women’s FAI Cup final tickets, prices do matter when it comes to enticing the floating fan.
The push on beating that attendance record from three years ago is well and truly on with the team’s stars, Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan, promoting the ‘Who’s gonna be there?’ slogan on social media.
Yet, a more appealing ticket price would kill off any debate about that outcome.
