Media duties in Tallaght on Tuesday morning. Chartered flight to Athens on Wednesday ahead of a crunch European tie. Back home Friday, in the early hours, before an FAI Cup final on Sunday afternoon.
This is the sort of “hectic week” that Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley envisaged becoming the norm back in 2019.
That was the last time Rovers won the cup. Not only was it Bradley’s first trophy as a thirtysomething coach, it bridged a gap to 1987 and Pat Byrne’s double-winning Hoops side.
“2019 was a pivotal moment in this group’s development,” said Bradley. “I always say you have to earn being successful on the pitch to understand what it takes to win as a group.
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“That cup final taught us what it takes to win. I felt we should have won the league that year. We just did not have that know-how. The cup final gave us that belief.
“It was a special day that sticks out in my mind – the showpiece game, you know all your family and friends are there. It brought joy to so many people. A pivotal moment in the evolution of this group.”
If Rovers skipper Pico Lopes is carrying his newborn son Diego around the Aviva in a ginormous silver cup on Sunday evening, the 1987 captain Pat Byrne will have the Cape Verde international for company.
Bradley has gone a step further than usual this week, tapping into the aura of the 1980s team by inviting them to the training ground in Roadstone.
“Without them, what we are doing would not be possible,” he explained. “They are really close to our group and they have been really amazing to lean on.
“More so when it was not going well at the start. I remember Pat Byrne coming out and staunchly supporting us when it would have been easier to go the other way.
“I would have private conversations with Pat, and Pat is probably the best player to ever play in the league. For him to understand what we are doing and how we are playing and where we were going is brilliant.
“They have been incredible for us. A few of them are going to pop into the training ground this week and sit down with the players to share memories about what they did all those years back.
“They paved the way for us. They have shown what can be achieved and we have followed their path.”
Doubles are few and far between. Cork City managed it in 2017, Dundalk under Stephen Kenny in 2018 and Rovers came close in 2020, losing 4-2 to Dundalk in the behind-closed-doors final.
What makes this week seem so full of promise, and equally potholes, is the small matter of Rovers Uefa Conference League campaign being on the line against AEK Athens at the Opap Arena on Thursday.
“Hectic, yeah, but this is a normal week for Thursday-Sunday games. Travel [Wednesday], play Thursday and back straight after the game, recover Friday, train Saturday and the game is Sunday.”
A third straight defeat in the Conference League would damage Bradley’s stated intention to return to the knockout rounds where they lost on penalties to Molde of Norway in February. But his constant assurances that the mentality needed to overcome Kerry FC in a home semi-final is no different from securing a famous result against AEK Athens at a sold-out Opap Arena are repeated so frequently that his players are beginning to believe him.
“It is a pretty standard European week,” went Bradley, deadpan, despite a rapid turnaround to the cup final against Cork City at the Aviva Stadium where more than 30,000 spectators are expected.
“I am sure all the talk [in Cork] is around us trying to do a double, where they finished [bottom] and where we finished [top] in the league. All that will be used and rightly so. We would do the same in their shoes but we don’t need any understanding of what Cork are.
“If Ger [Nash] is there earlier [than May], I think they survive quite comfortably. I think their group is really strong. A lot of their young players are good. You got Seani Maguire and Ruairi Keating, who are as good as any two in the country, I know [Keating] has been out for a while.
“We are under no illusions what we are up against.”
Mostly, these days, Rovers are competing against themselves. Come Sunday night, Byrne and the 1987 men could have Lopes and the 2025 team for company.
