The off-field rebranding and repackaging of the League of Ireland should be applauded - but we can’t lose sight of what matters.
Players and managers have never been as visible and clubs deserve credit for the social media drive.
Bright, young minds are behind it and it’s no coincidence that attendances are soaring.
But it’ll become vanilla pretty quickly if we can’t resuscitate the personality - and personalities - being drained from the game.
A lot of the club social media coverage is so stage-managed. Everyone is a brand. Everyone is ‘a top, top lad’. Nobody dares diss a rival.
Pass me the sick bucket. It’s so boring.
It wasn’t that long ago that the personalities in the league had something interesting to say.
There should be an edge because this is entertainment, but there’s a lack of individuality and uniqueness.
Players should go off script - in interviews and on the pitch. They should have a bit of ‘je ne sais quoi’ about them.
We’ve our own unique history and standing in world football, but the league’s personalities are encouraged to live in a bland bubble?
Still, the League of Ireland is back for another season and so are the good time vibes.
Mullets and taches are also back, but that’s another conversation.
(I call it the ‘dole look’ of the 80s. If these people knew what it was like to be unemployed in the 80s, they might reconsider their fashion choices).
I’m not being down on the league rebranding. I love it and I'm feeling very positive about the season ahead. But it’s Catch 22.
Clubs have good intentions and I like some of the behind-the-scenes footage from training grounds, or fan interaction in the stands.
There’s an engagement around the league that I’ve never seen before and we should have been doing this 10 years ago.
But unlike Americans and British people, the Irish are terrible at putting their best foot forward and saying ‘we’re great’.
Now, finally, we’re looking at ourselves in the mirror and saying ‘yes, we’re good at what we do and we can be better’.
The League of Ireland is a multi-generational product.
You’ll always have the old guys and dears going to games, and they’re bedrocks of the LOI community.
But just as it’s a young players league, it’s a young fans game too. Clubs have finally copped on and are appealing directly to that generation.
If I was still playing, I’d actually find it hard to block out the noise of the clubs paddling their own canoes.
Everywhere you look there’s shiny videos and nicey-nicey in-house interviews where nothing controversial ever happens and everyone sounds like a robot.
It’s not real.
One of the league’s greatest selling points has always been its personalities and the stories and opinions that they have.
But we’re hearing fewer and fewer of them because the clubs want to control the message, yet the content is so bland.
The more that players are exposed to that, the more they will believe this is their world and the product on the pitch becomes passive.
So, please, a bit more bite on and off the pitch in 2023 and make the most of the figures involved.
Rebels must learn....fast
Cork City were no great shakes in their opener but will have learned loads.
I was at Turner’s Cross and the place was rocking for the Bohs game last Friday.
It makes you realise how important it is to have the Rebels back in the top flight.
Dermot Usher, their new owner, is working through a list of jobs to upgrade the ground but, as a package, the venue ticks a lot of boxes.
I was really worried for Cork for about 60 minutes of that game. They looked miles off it and it was rabbits in headlights stuff.
The occasion got to them and so did the step up in quality but, to their credit, they scraped their way out of it and just found something.
Then it became a different game.
For me, it was a good reminder that while tactics and game plans are essential, they don’t always work.
I heard it a lot in dressing rooms but if something isn’t working for you, find another way.
If Plan A isn’t working, Plan B might be as simple as rolling up your sleeves or getting in the face of your opponent to spark a change.
When you strip it back, football is still a simple game and Cork very nearly got a point out of nothing.
There's appeal in asking for red reviews
Shamrock Rovers should have rolled the dice and appealed Roberto Lopes’ red card in Sligo.
Yes, he raised his hand to Kailin Barlow and by the strictest letter of the law, he walks.
But there was no intent in the little push on Barlow’s forehead and that’s where I’d like a more open interpretation of the rule.
It reminded me of Casemiro’s sending off in Manchester United’s game with Crystal Palace a few weeks ago.
Handbags.
You want needle in games, but there’s a clear line in what’s aggressive and over the top - and what’s not.
There was no aggression in what Lopes did and, with the new appeals process in play this season, I’d like clubs to challenge a few of these decisions.
I like that you can now appeal red cards, albeit at €500 a pop.
There’s real time footage, proper communication and good feedback, so sensible decisions should be made.
Voice of football
Motty was the soundtrack of my youth.
I didn’t know John Motson, never met the man.
But you don’t realise how attached you are to figures like that until they’re gone.
Like me, I’d imagine many of you have brilliant football memories tied into a piece of John Motson commentary.
He had such a distinctive voice and was the voice of football.
RIP.
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