Chapter 1: What was discussed at the LOI 2026 Launch event?
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Now, you're very welcome back. 33 live games coming up on Off the Ball this season, which is going to be the most we've ever broadcast from the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. We're also going to be bringing you games from the Women's FA Cup a little bit later on this season as well. Ben is with me. We were both there at the launch yesterday in Whelans. Exciting times.
People can see the videos on our social media already. I do love launch day because everyone is optimistic of what's going to happen for the season.
everyone's optimistic and it helps when you're in a venue that you kind of associate usually, maybe you'd be in there in the nighttime, point in hand, listen to a bit of music. So everyone's a little bit more relaxed when they're sitting in wheelings rather than entering into their own territory.
The conversation for most people, you know, where you're filling that time between bringing the people up to the studio where you're recording was, What's the last gig you were here for?
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Chapter 2: How are the new players impacting Derry City FC's strategy?
Are you looking forward to playing with Jimmy particularly? Obviously yourself as a winger, he was a winger, I know he's kind of sometimes moved back to play more of a left-back role. Is he someone that you would, I know there's not that much between you, but would you have been watching him over in England hoping maybe this day would come, the two of you together playing for Derry?
Aye. Look, the career James has had is unbelievable. I know he left Derry and went to Sunderland, I think it was, and the amount of games he's played in the Premier League for Ireland, everything, and I've always watched him and obviously wanted him to do well and stuff.
And to get James back now, and the level he was still playing at, you know, he was in the Championship still playing nearly every week, so to get a player like James back and amongst our squad now, he's going to be...
he's going to be brilliant for us on the pitch and off the pitch and I'm really excited to play alongside him James McLean I think we're all expecting he's going to have a big impact to the club in the year to come so I wonder as well so you obviously talk about his professionalism I wonder again is this going to be one of those signs that just drives that little bit of interest I remember when Keith Gillespie went to Longford and loads of people just became really intrigued it was him and Kirby as a kind of a veteran midfield he wasn't playing like a winger like he was when he was at Newcastle or Man United but yet people were going to watch Longford games just to watch Keith Gillespie
Yeah it is and it's going to be completely again that case it's that I know people have already talked of the Damien Duff kind of impact of having that high level person come back that is really all this is going to bring it's going to bring interest across the league it's going to bring more professionalism back Not back to the league, not that it's lacking it.
But if you have someone coming from championship level football into the League of Ireland, it's only a good thing. Yeah, 100 plus capped Ireland international as well.
Let's go to shells then, because Joey O'Brien was talking to Stephen Doyle as well. One of the aspects for his side has been some of the introduction that they brought in around analytics as well, including Jamestown analytics. Rather than explaining what that means for transfers, here's the man himself explaining why they're deploying them.
Yeah look it's just another, I think there's a lot of stuff maybe on the background or outside, don't really understand what it is. Basically it's just a, as far as the scouting network, they give you an opinion on players or maybe something that you're an area to the pitch you want to recruit on and stuff like that.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does Shelbourne FC face this season?
They provide you with players. Listen I think from our point of view, and you can see this, the way the league has changed for the better. Obviously the teams are full time, but a lot of lads are on long term contracts so the actual touring of the players in the league is not what it used to be four or six years ago.
Chapter 4: What insights did Pearl Slattery share about her career?
I think from our point of view, we have to do outside and we've done that. To look outside, so obviously having a tail like that is all that can help you a little bit. But still, you go and watch them, you still do all your homework. You're obviously on a player, you know where they're from, their background, their stuff like that, how they play.
You go and watch them multiple times, which we have done as a football club with these players. And then ultimately again, it's about trying to get a deal in place and trying to hear it. So Ben, Tony Bloom is obviously in
the news for various different reasons. His gambling, what happened to Brighton, the fact that he's used these analytics at Hearts, which has been very successful in the Scottish Premiership so far this year as well. That, I presume, is going to have quite an impact on scouting players for Shells too?
I can't wait to see how this unfolds, Will. I really can't wait. As you said, Hearts, Brighton, Union Saint-Gallaz in the Belgian First Visions Valley we saw in the Champions League last night. If you look at some of the signings that Shell have brought in this season, you have Mael Lundgren
from the Swedish top division and you have Rodrigo Freitas from Varzim in the Portuguese third tier I mean if you see a signing coming in with five goals in the Portuguese third tier it doesn't exactly scream goals to me but Tony Bloom has proven time and time again with this Jameson analytics there's a reason why these signings work nothing excites the League of Ireland fan more than somebody coming from an exotic location as well with a fun name
It's either you want a former international, you can say, oh, former Ireland under 21 international assigned or whatever it might be. In this case, McLean obviously is a huge entry coming in, but nothing else beats a guy who comes from the Portuguese second division. You've heard nothing about him, but obviously Shells must have spotted something. And that's the reason that they brought him in.
Bohemians then are getting ready for European football this season, which was earned for them last year. First time they're going to play in Europe in four years. It's a big year for both, isn't it?
Huge year. Final year at Daly Mount, which is massive. I know obviously they're not going to play their first game of the season in Daly Mount. They're in the Viva on Sunday the 8th of February against St. Patrick's Athletic. We'll be there for that, covering it. But yeah, it's a massive year and it's something that's not lost on the people at the club.
I was speaking to Alan Reynolds and Captain Dawson Devoy last night and here's what they had to say about that final year at Daly Mount.
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Chapter 5: How does the new coaching staff influence team dynamics?
Of course, he was in the Galway United side that managed to stay up at the end of the last season. Huge moment on the final day when they managed to stay up. Obviously, devastating loss of Olly Horgan throughout the season, which I think sometimes probably... When you're watching the league, maybe on a Friday night, you don't fully take into the fact the impact that that has on these players.
And I spoke to Brendan about how that impact affected them.
To be honest, I'm still shocked by it. To be honest, I'm still rattled. I've had to go and speak to professionals about it. We have all these... all these facilities available to us and I'm obviously happy to avail them. But in terms of the group it was a very strange feeling around the place. Towards the back end of the season we kind of got back to what
Ollie would have instilled in us, Ollie and John would have instilled in us and kind of being horrible, being hard to beat and then playing football when we could. But just being really dogged and I like to think we did him proud in the last few weeks that we managed to stay up. Ollie's a fantastic, not even football related, just a fantastic human being.
He broke my heart, he broke everyone's hearts when he sadly passed. But like I said, just as a group, we were just delighted to be able to kind of get the job done and stay up. Because I know that would have been, he would have hated that, you know, us being relegated and stuff.
So just to get that done as a group and obviously people go, it's football, people go different ways, different directions. Yeah, look, he obviously, he definitely left a mark on many of us.
Yeah, the great Olly Horgan is going to be missed around the league throughout the season. So we've got loads of interviews. There's a ton of them there. We know there's Odrian Johnson, one of our mates from Beat, one of our sister stations who's helping us out as well. So you were chatting to Wexford, Waterford. These are all going to be out over the next while. So where can people access them?
I know some of them are already up.
Some of them are up already. So we have Stephen Bradley, Lee Grace, Michael Duffy out of the President's Cup up there. We've Stephen Kenny up there. As you said, we've Athlon Towns, manager John Sullivan and new captain Hannah Waish up as well. So you get them on the Off The Ball YouTube page or wherever you get your Off The Ball podcasts.
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