John Fallon: Damien Duff's golden words complemented by platinum title win
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An Ireland centurion blended with Only Fools and Horses and Modern Family produced a Hollywood story. Shelbourne's tale typified the erratic nature of League of Ireland clubs, from boom to bust and back to a version of it, but Damien Duff's role provided the novelty factor.
For someone so averse to public comments during his playing career, Duff has more than compensated since migrating to management.
Backing words up with actions is a hazardous task, but he delivered by breaking the dominance of Shamrock Rovers when the pre-season predictions had Derry City or St Patrick's Athletic as the likeliest disruptors.
Last Friday's late winner in Derry to crown a first Shels title since 2006 was accompanied by his anecdote around former manager José Mourinho – a video clip mushroomed to reaching a million sets of eyes by now – but here's a glossary of the gold he uttered from the start of the season. Opinions on broader topics supplied equal entertainment.
"Will Casement Park bring through footballers? Maybe in a roundabout way but Academies, for me, is where the future of Irish football is," he said after the Irish Government pledged €50m to the derelict Belfast GAA venue mooted to stage four Euro 2028 fixtures.
"Academy players are going away at 16 to Europe and 18 to England, but it's too late. Training three days per week is lightyears behind. It doesn't take a 55-page FAI document to tell us how to produce better players."
On the FAI manager's job, vacant since November: "Maybe someone, through someone, through someone, asked me would I be interested in speaking to someone. Obviously, my answer was no. How real it was, I don't know because I'm sure it was just a box ticker.
"I'm not sure how long it can take to appoint a manager. It's getting embarrassing now."
After one of his pet projects, Shane Farrell, was sent off in a scoreless draw against Shamrock Rovers.
"I used to laugh about his diet in year one, the chicken fillet rolls and whatever, but that time has passed now.
"How you live your life off the pitch and how you train usually gets shown up on a match night - and it did tonight."
"I am writing to you all to say that I am deeply sorry for my comments in the media on Wednesday, July 10 when I mentioned sacking 90% of the staff," Duff said in a letter to FAI staff following comments that included a recommendation to "raze Abbotstown to the ground".
tYou are all working hard for the benefit of Irish football; Trying to pay the bills, mortgages and support families. Frankly, it was a ridiculous comment. My emotion and fight for the game came out very poorly and I regret it."
"Ruaidhrí is probably my only friend in the LOI so I guess I've none left now," he said after a sideline spat with the Derry City manager Ruaidhrí Higgins, whom he worked with during his brief spell under Stephen Kenny in the Ireland set-up.
"On a serious note, I love Ruaidhrí. He was the one person that kept me sane when I was in the Irish gig. He's a big boy, so I am and we'll brush it off."
One win in 10 wasn't the form of title contenders and Duff revealed it was his father Gerry who influenced that victory, a scruffy 1-0 at basement side Dundalk.
"My dad was a big part of the team talk last week, which prodded them. I won't say what he said, but it annoyed the players. Sometimes you can tell people 'guys you're great'. Sometimes you can try to annoy players to get more and my dad played a big part in the three points last week at Oriel Park believe it or not.
Duff also spoke of another disagreement with a counterpart – this one entailing a physical aspect when Bohemians manager Alan Reynolds entered his Tolka Park office before the teams drew.
"That's the League of Ireland for you," he lamented. "What really upsets me about the LOI is that there are so many loose lips, so many people that you can't trust.
"That's why this is a special group of individuals, players and staff.
"Outside of that, I don't care about anybody. I will fall out with absolutely anybody to bring this club back to where it belongs. The fact that I'm getting asked this speaks volumes about people and the league."
Taking issue with Stephen Bradley's assertion of the quality slipping – "If we're being honest, the standard hasn't been great" – Duff hit back.
"That's crap and I totally disagree. If Stephen says everyone's been poor, I'd say there are 250 professional footballers in this country that would find that as a slight. I think maybe back in the day it was easy to go to Galway. It's fucking not."
After that defeat to Shamrock Rovers, Shels still knew nine points from their final three games would clinch the title. They hadn't strung a trio of wins together since June.
"I didn't ask the lads to compete in a title race; I demanded it," he revealed about pre-season expectations. "Irish football has been built on gallant efforts for too long. I'm not interested in hard luck stories; my focus is on getting the job done."
He didn't compromise when placing their title triumph in the contest of Shelbourne's previous 13 successes.
"To come up to Derry and win against a great team and manager, people talk about Leicester City being a Hollywood story but this is Hollywood.
"With respect to all the great players who won titles before for Shelbourne, this is the greatest story."
All eyes of the Ireland women's team are on overcoming Wales to reach next summer's Euros, but on Thursday they'll find out their opposition for the Nations League.
Eileen Gleeson's side have sampled the full gamut of disparity in levels since this concept was expanded to the women's game last year. Six straight victories illustrated Ireland's superiority in League B – scoring 20 goals and conceding two along the way – but that promotion presented challenges against three of the top six ranked nations in the world – France, England and Sweden.
The upside of that exposure was the guarantee beforehand of playoff entry, plus they finished with a flourish by filleting France at Pairc Uí Chaoímh.
Ireland's final game of the year is at Lansdowne Road against the Welsh on December 3 but they could return to Leeside early in 2025 – all going well, using the six games as preparation for the July Euros in Switzerland.
As the third highest ranked team of the 16, Ireland are placed in Pot A and will want to avoid Belarus due to the closed-doors policy on their 'home' matches on neutral ground and the morality around granting visas to the Russian ally.
The draw takes place at noon in Nyon. Matchdays are February, April and May/June of 2025.
Finland, Czechia, Ireland, Poland. Pot B: Serbia, Ukraine, Northern Ireland, Turkey. Pot C: Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia. Pot D: Romania, Belarus, Greece, Albania.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was among the plethora of candidates the FAI interviewed for their manager's job and he'll impart his knowledge to LOI coaches this month.
John O'Shea's former teammate at Manchester United – who became the club's unlikely manager after José Mourinho, initially as caretaker – is to address all of the men's club managers on November 21.
It's part of the FAI's coach education programme, aiming to broaden the knowledge base of the domestic bosses. The Norwegian made his way up the coaching ladder by leading United's reserves, then managing Cardiff City either side of spells in charge of his former team Molde.
Among the LOI managers will be Ciarán Kilduff. Nobody will be surprised to see the former Dundalk striker back at Oriel Park for today's unveiling as their new manager. Kilduff made quite an impression in the women's sector during his 18 months, calling out the FAI for neglecting home-based players and leading Athlone Town to their first league title. He left the club within hours of losing the FAI Cup final 6-1 to Shelbourne last month.
John Temple, Dundalk's latest owner, addressed speculation at that time by insisting he hadn't held talks with Kilduff but was soon offered the position. The Lilywhites are back in the First Division for the first time in 17 years. Their priority is to avoid starting the 2025 season with a points deduction by remaining out of the SCARP examinership, a scheme for debt-ridden small companies.