League of Ireland should be thankful for their holy trinity

Across the Irish Sea, there have been many celebrations of a club’s Holy Trinity, honouring immortals of the glory game.

From Moore, Hurst and Peters at West Ham, to Kendall, Harvey and Ball at Everton and, of course, Best, Charlton and Law at Manchester United.

Here, ahead of the most eagerly awaited battle for League of Ireland honours that I can recall, the Holy Trinity is of managers, Damien Duff (Shelbourne), Stephen Bradley (Shamrock Rovers) and Stephen Kenny (St Patrick’s Athletic).

The trio are huge personalities with opinions that carry weight and shift the needle, as they say in today’s digital world.

Kenny has been around the block the longest and can point to more trophies against his name than any other active manager.

He will be desperate to add another to his CV at St Pats, where he began in the front-line, and distance himself that bit further from his undistinguished time as Republic of Ireland Irish senior manager.

Duff was on Kenny’s Irish coaching staff before deciding the role wasn’t for him only to be enticed back to dust off the cobwebs and oil the creaky hinges at Tolka Park.

It was a gamble, on both sides, that has paid off spectacularly with a title in his third year. Driven, demanding, demonstrative, Duff is a walking, talking, billboard for his club, and the league. If Shels charged admission into his compelling post-match press conferences, they’d clean up. Ollie Byrne, the club’s former CEO, would have been intrepid enough to do just that.

Season ticket sales at Shels have doubled this year to more than 2,000, and there were over 4,600 fans at a throbbing Tolka last Friday for the season’s ceremonial bow, the President’s Cup.

As Kenny and Duff put the final touches to their preparations for the 36-game marathon, Bradley is engaged in the Conference League play-offs in Molde with the Hoops.

For the League of Ireland to have a club scaling the heights of UEFA club competition in February, having embarked on the lower slopes the previous July is unheard of.

Amid the chilly fjords of Norway tomorrow, Rovers will cross the white line for the 15th time since their summer bow.

Two years ago, they lost home and away to Molde in the group phase of this competition, but such has been their European progression under Bradley, they start favourites to advance to the last 16.

Their Euro engagement means their opening game of the season against arch-rivals, or rather enemies, Bohemians, has been deferred until Sunday.

In an enterprising move, Bohemians availed of the gap to book the Aviva Stadium for the game, which represents another ground-breaking act for the league.

That more than 25,000 tickets have been sold already suggests the passion for club football is not confined to a grand day out for the FAI Cup final.

Media interest is also off the charts.

Virgin Media have won the rights to show no less than 36 Premier Division games live, free to air, starting with two this weekend, Shelbourne v Derry City on Friday, followed by Bohemians-Rovers on Sunday.

On Monday last, Off The Ball snapped up the radio rights for 30 top flight games, 15 of which will be broadcast live on Newstalk, with the others available on the OTB app.

All is not perfect, of course. Many stadiums are stuck in the dark ages, there are plastic pitches which should be dug up, while academy funding is a must for the new Coalition government, to help foster the next Evan Ferguson, Mason Melia or even the next Duffer.

Even so, across the 10 Premier Division clubs, the anticipation levels are peaking. It’s like the 34 runners at the start of the Grand National at Aintree.

Everyone starts level, and all connected with any horse feel they have a chance of doing well. Some will fall or falter; others will surprise, or stay the distance.

I’d be astonished if Shelbourne’s winning return of 63 points in 2024 would be sufficient again. Even in a tightly run race, 70 points is a more realistic target.

After more years than old Mr Brennan might care to remember, it’s a great time to be a reporter, even an ageing one, on the League of Ireland beat.

For that, among others, we are thankful to the Holy Trinity.