In league with locals at last

So, what next, eh? Mirror Group to snap up Shamrock Rovers. Well, if all the hype about a Dublin team making the quantum leap to European Super League status is to be believed then it's really not such a far-fetched scenario. Why not buy up one of the potential contestants now and then champion their cause with other media groups when the line-ups for the new European competitions are hammered out over the next 12 months or so?

Whoever owns it, the selection of an Irish club to represent this country and boost television rights income would almost certainly have one upshot that National League fans here have been crying out for these past few years. There would, within a very short space of time, one suspects, be Irish-based players playing in the national team again. Even if representation in the senior team remains some way off, however, the growing recognition of the domestic game's young talent has been very welcome over the summer and the first few weeks of the new season.

Players at domestic clubs have won considerable recognition from Ian Evans and Brian Kerr over the past couple of months, and the fact that the talents of such players as Keith Doyle, John Frost and Derek Coughlan earned them a place in under-age international teams already appears to be having a positive effect on the way people are thinking here.

Last week, in a conversation about player availability for the weekend's game with Monaghan United, Kilkenny manager Alfie Hale strayed on to the subject of young Michael Reddy, a teenage striker who burst onto the scene towards the end of last season.

Hale was clearly angered by Reddy's omission from Kerr's under-18 squad for the game against England in Tolka Park and, while taking care to make it clear that the former St Patrick's manager was entitled to pick and choose as he saw fit, Hale expressed a certain amount of bewilderment as to how his youngster could have been passed over.

In itself, the City manager's frustration is of little consequence. But as one of many small signs that the relationship between the National League and the people who run the playing side of things at the FAI is changing, it is very welcome.

Keith Doyle, not only travelled to Cyprus during the summer for the European Under-18 championships but played as well. Derek Coughlan, who played so well for Cork City over the closing stages of last season, has had his magnificent start to the new campaign rewarded with a first under-21 cap and John Frost, after playing such a central part in Waterford United's promotion from the first division last season was named in Kerr's starting line up for last Wednesday's match in Tolka. What is most encouraging, though, is that people are already looking for, and beginning to expect, a whole lot more.

Such expectations may, of course, go largely unfulfilled - particularly if Evans and Kerr continue to come up against the sort of foot-dragging by some clubs that has undermined many of their attempts to organise training session for National League players. But, for the time being, if the day has come when there can be open and fair debates about whether this National League player or that deserves his place in an Irish international team then we have already made a huge leap forward.

During the Charlton, or more precisely, the Maurice Setters era, there was a feeling that domestic players would be treated unfairly when it came to under-21 selection. The situation, at times, was so absurd as to barely warrant serious discussion. That, fortunately, has passed and an improvement in the way young players are being brought though by National League clubs, combined with a far more even-handed approach by Evans and the appointment of Kerr has carried us a long way in the right direction.

And the faith of the selectors has, so far, been justified. On Friday night in Kilkenny, against Croatia, Coughlan had an outstanding first half in the centre of Evans's defence, while Thomas Morgan was a key figure in midfield over the same 45-minute period.

Frost may not have such fond memories of his outing against England's under-18s but then he was not the only one of Kerr's side to have some trouble coping with very strong opposition. Not that he is likely to come across another Luke Chadwick, a powerful Manchester United winger with a marvellous touch, in a hurry.

The fact is that Frost, like the others who were included in that and Friday's squad, earned his chance on the international stage and got what he deserved. That is all that reasonable supporters of our league could ever have asked for. The next time somebody asks how some National League player was omitted from the under-21 squad it won't seem entirely reasonable to merely point out his domestic status as justification for non-selection. That, after the last regime, is a good deal of progress in itself.