Football Season Guide

Shamrock are coming from a fairly successful season, having finished third in the league and enjoyed good runs in both domestic cup competitions. It would have been even better had they not lost to Dundalk in the final of the League Cup but, on overall, they did reasonably well. The Rovers had outside hopes of winning the league entering the previous season but that was never going to be possible following their rocky start. However, they got better over time and Stephen Bradley got them committed to playing an attacking brand of football and was spot on with most of the signings he made during the previous winter transfer window. This time around, Bradley has looked to reshape the one area of the team where his side were lacking at times last season, which is the defence. Dave Webster and Darren Meenan have left the club, but the likes of Greg Bolger and Ally Gilchrist have joined, while versatile ex-Finn Harps man Ethan Boyle is a very promising player who can also play at the back. Obviously, the Rovers are going from stability and have not changed too much compared to last season. They will have a new back line in the new campaign and, if their new defence works better than the old one did, Shamrock might have a genuine change of breaking Cork and Dundalk's duopoly.