Daniel McDonnell: Damien Duff’s rallying call came at just the right time

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Damien Duff picked the right time for another rallying call to confirm his unlikely candidacy as the leader of a League of Ireland movement.

“The last two weeks has highlighted that the leading light of Irish football is not the national team but the league itself,” said Duff, in a quote that Shelbourne were happy to push across their social media channels.

“It is bigger, better, more exciting and more important. Every true Irish football fan has been waiting for this Friday – nothing else.”

There are sports shows that would scoff if a League of Ireland fan complaining about coverage got in touch expressing that sentiment.

It’s harder to dismiss a person who has actually represented his country 100 times.

People will continue to question Duff’s intentions – there are sceptics who will never get their head around his enthusiasm for the Shels gig – but the last fortnight could probably encourage a few non-believers to endorse his sentiment.

League of Ireland preview

I’ve never got on board with the negativity about international breaks that is often driven by the extent to which our football discussions are influenced by English narratives.

Given that they qualify for pretty much every tournament, it’s only the major international competitions that grab English football fans and commentators. Regular qualifiers are pretty much routine exercises.

For Ireland, it’s different. The breaks generally always carry some kind of meaning.

The problem is that the last three windows – October, November and the March one just gone – have been devoid of it.

March friendlies in a tournament year where your team isn’t participating in the finals are especially grim. And when they are surrounded by a protracted manager hunt that has become draining rather than entertaining, then the idea of a record breaking 10,000 crowd in Tallaght tonight for a game where the result is really important has never seemed more attractive.

Rovers boss Stephen Bradley struck the right tone in his pre-match comments, telling Aidan Fitzmaurice that it needs to be a regular thing rather than a one-off and he’s bang on.

Celebrating it too much could breed complacency, but it’s a good news story compared to the international circus.

Even Duff will have to admit there will be a different vibe in September when England come to town.

Regardless of what happens between now and then, the build-up to that fixture will be exciting.

We still don’t know who will be on the sideline.

In various pieces across the past month, I’ve made the point about the dangers created by the vacuum.

The desire for information means that reporting of meetings that have happened at any point make them a news story that is interpreted as significant in the present tense.

Step forward, Roy Keane speculation. The latest and highest-profile example.

It is known that at least one senior figure in the FAI liked the idea of Keane and that’s why he was spoken to.

After everything the FAI have said, it would make absolutely no sense if Keane was rolled out at the end of this process.

Yes, he did say on ‘Stick To Football’ in January that he was interested in the job but, in February, Keane strongly indicated he was done with management, making a vague reference to disrespectful offers and timewasters without being asked to go into any detail. He could have been talking about anything.

The Corkman’s surprised response to a Gary Neville story about how senior England boss Roy Hodgson was required for meetings with other coaches – led by then FA technical director Dan Ashworth – seemed to confirm the view that Keane just wouldn’t be suited to the environment favoured by the FAI’s equivalent Marc Canham.

More to the point, Keane would earn far more for his TV commitments than what the FAI are offering – it’s been accurately reported that he would be expecting more. If the facility was there to increase the package on offer, they’d surely be going to Lee Carsley with it. So there’s zero logic in suggesting that Keane could fit the criteria that the FAI themselves have outlined with their public pronunciations.

Punditry obligations aren’t a credible explanation for missing 50pc of the friendly matches ahead of an important Nations League campaign.

Maybe we’re just at the stage of the saga where logic is becoming an irritation.

More rumours have gone around in the past seven days than in the previous seventy. There’s a wariness about amplifying them because the broader FAI picture is so volatile. We reported that Jonathan Hill’s future was in doubt ahead of Wednesday’s board meeting and that story isn’t going to go away.

The manager picture is likely to be cleared up first, as indicated in this post-meeting follow-up that also includes comments from John O’Shea who is clearly keen on the job.

Canham’s presence around O’Shea’s camp for several days has fuelled an internal view that the Waterford man was being monitored closely for whatever reason.

There have been plenty of jokes about the significance of the Georgia-Greece playoff on Tuesday with Willy Sagnol and Gus Poyet on either side but there are sources claiming that senior FAI figures were following developments in the shootout in Tbilisi very closely in the minutes before kick-off in the Switzerland game. And the story goes that they didn’t necessarily get the result that they wanted.

Typing this seems ridiculous because it’s hard to believe that the FAI could end up in such a position.

On Thursday, Canham told an internal meeting of football staff not to believe what they’re reading in the media and there’ll be an appointment within a couple of weeks.

The possibility remains that everything is in hand and they will spring an April appointment that sits in perfectly with the plot they have laid out.

I, for one, will applaud them. Mainly because it would mean all of this would be over.

QUICK HITS

Gary Breen’s strong endorsement of John O’Shea is worth a read. He argues that the FAI shouldn’t feel obliged to stick to the Plan A (if there is a Plan A) for reasons of self-preservation if they feel the interim team is better.

My post Switzerland piece was about the sobering reality that will face whoever the next manager is .

The huge double header for Eileen Gleeson’s side is around the corner but the location for July’s return meeting with France was a talking point yesterday with the Aviva unavailable.

David Kelly explained the reasons why Aston Villa Anna Patten has been recruited straight into the squad (the rate of new arrivals doesn’t sit easily with me but it’s well explained)

Elsewhere, Sean O’Connor was at Alan Reynolds’ opening press conference as Bohemians boss.

READER’S CORNER

Geoff Rose was in touch last weekend to complain about the absence of League of Ireland Premier Division games.

“There are no players involved in the teams from the league and the financial pressure on all clubs is unsustainable. These are friendlies and have no significance whatsoever,” said Geoff, in the course of a mail that went on to hammer the FAI.

I’ll stand up for Abbotstown on this one. Firstly, there were players on international duty last weekend, just not with the Ireland senior team. Markus Poom (Estonia), Pico Lopes (Cape Verde), Franz Pierrot (Haiti), Sam Durrant (Sri Lanka) in addition to underage international calls. Some Premier games would have been eligible for cancellation if they were scheduled.

But the buzz around the return of the league this week highlights why the breaks should exist anyway. League games get lost in international windows; coverage would have been reduced considerably – we’ll see that happen in June where there’s a bit of an unavoidable crossover.

It always used to rankle being overseas at an Ireland away game while a really important league match was taking place at home. The First Division rightly played on and it was nice to be able to check in with the games on LOITV but breaks at Premier level are badly needed. As Duffer pointed out, they might just make you grateful for what you’re missing.

Get in touch at dmcdonnell@independent.ie or via @McDonnellDan on Twitter