Rovers set sights on a drive for five
ABOUT 30 minutes after the final whistle on Friday night, the players and staff of Shamrock Rovers gathered in the centre circle at Richmond Park, celebratory bottles of beer to hand. This was their time.
On cue, they broke into their Tallaght trademark song, ‘Build Me Up, Buttercup’, released by The Foundations in 1968, when Rovers were the Cup kings of Irish football, if not quite the league.
It’s all different now. ‘The foundations’ put down by Michael O’Neill, which yielded back to back titles in 2010 and 2011, have been built on by Stephen Bradley, his coaches and players.
While Covid was given as a reason for a poor return from the Republic of Ireland at senior level, it didn’t prevent Rovers from emerging as a tour de force in Irish club football.
Four titles, four in a row, a first since Shamrock Rovers in 1984-87.
Before that? It had never been done before, although Cork United (1941-43 Waterford (1968-70) and Dundalk (2014-16) hit the bar.
Along the way, the faces remained the same.
Bradley, Stephen McPhail, Glenn Cronin, Tony McCarthy, Dr Alan Byrne and no less than 10 players too from the first title in 2020, all of whom who crossed the white line on Friday.
Already, Bradley is planning the drive for five, a feat achieved by a Dublin team in blue, who then went one better with six successive AllIreland football titles between 2015 and 2020.
A senior figure in the Rovers hierarchy assured IMOS the club ‘would do all in its power’ to keep Bradley on board for 2024.
Judging by his post-match comments and body language, Bradley is prepared to stay but that could change if a club bigger than Lincoln City comes knocking, which may well happen.
The 38-year-old Dubliner is a certainty to enter the conversation for the Irish manager’s job, which will soon be vacant.
Bradley felt Rovers had ‘more credit in the bank’ when they started the season sluggishly, to the extent that they were written off in some quarters.
‘I remember one article from one of the journalists in March or April saying that we were done. That was our team talk for the rest of the year, we just pinned it up.
‘People were wanting us to fail. It’s Ireland, isn’t it? People don’t like success in any form. People were saying let’s split up the Dubs and make them into three or four.
‘We don’t do the siege mentality but it was an easy one to show the players and say, “That’s what we’re up against. That’s what people think of us.”
‘We were nine points behind at one stage and we could finish ten ahead. It’s a really, incredible achievement.’
Improbably, Bradley also had to deal with challenges from within Rovers where he said he had support from ’99 per cent’ of the club.
‘It’s not nice. I have a serious problem at home to deal with, with my son (Josh). We’re in hospital every week, and for someone to attack me personally is not right,’ he said.
Josh Bradley is nine and has been dealing with leukaemia for almost 18 months.
On Friday night, Bradley hinted at a difficult year for Josh, which he strived to park as best he could, while giving his players what they needed to be the best.
More than once, he turned to Mary Larkin, the club’s mental fitness specialist.
‘My son’s stuff really got to me. It bothered me how to protect the players but also bring them in and allow them to understand what was happening in my personal life.
‘That took its toll on me, I really questioned could I do it and how would I do it.
‘That was a low point in my life. If I was going to be here I wanted to give everything to the players and not hold anything back.
‘It took me a while to get my head around that. Working with Mary has helped me massively with that.’
Under Bradley, Rovers have won 82 of 124 league games since 2020, that’s a winning ratio of over 66%.
What keeps him going? ‘Just the hunger to be better, to be the best,’ he said.
‘I went through all the goals we conceded the night before Friday. My wife (Emma) thought I was mad. I sat there for hours going through them all.
‘How did they happen? Why did they happen? Because we need to be better. I went through all the goals we scored. Where did they come from? You have to understand why. If you don’t and just put it away and think “success” is just going to keep happening, you will end up in trouble.’
‘I spoke to the players early on when we were getting the draws. I felt there was a pressure cooker and people were talking “four four four” as if it was a special number.
‘I said to them “Four is just a number, it’s about the next one, the next challenge.” ‘It’s not, “Four and thank you.” We want to go and be the best team that has ever played in this country.’
● Noel King is to leave his post as manager of Shelbourne’s women’s team at the end of the season. Under King, the Reds won the league in 2021, followed by the League and FAI Cup double in 2022. They play Athlone Town in the FAI Cup final on November 19.