"I don’t see this as my final swansong"

92 days have passed since Sam Glenfield scored the winning goal against Bray Wanderers in Tolka Park to give us a 2-1 victory which helped us to preserve our Premier Division status. In some ways it feels like it was only yesterday, but in others it feels like a long time ago. But there has been a lot of change at the football club since that night.

We have completed pre-season now, which is pre-season number 23 for me personally - and the energy and enthusiasm is still the same as it was for pre-season number one. 

It was a tough slog since we went back to training on December 10th, but we are ready for whatever faces us in the season ahead. Our new manager, Jon Daly, and his assistant, Richard Foster, along with the other staff have been brilliant since they came in to the club. Training has been very good but also enjoyable and that is no mean feat as it takes a lot to please 20 plus young men (young excluding me) and keep them happy for a period of time.

Last Wednesday I travelled up to Dublin along with the manager, Jon, for the launch of the new League of Ireland season in Whelan’s, and it was an interesting day to say the least. 

It is brilliant for the league to have a launch day like they do every year, and this was the first year that I had the pleasure of going. Every club from the Women’s Premier Division to the Men’s First Division to the Men’s Premier Division were represented by their manager and a player (usually their captain), with media outlets there on the day ranging from the print media to national broadcasters to social media. 

It is funny what you take from a day like that when you are one of the smaller clubs there. You can really see the pecking order where clubs are valued by the different media outlets. It has often been said that the majority of provincial clubs get less media attention than others, and while I would have been one of those who would have disagreed with that sentiment in recent years, this year was the first time I really noticed it. 

While I understand the treatment of the perceived "bigger clubs" who bring more to the table in terms of publicity, it was still very disappointing to see how some very good and important managers and people in the League of Ireland were almost cast aside on the day. It was a wasted journey for many of them once the formalities were done. Still, it was good that the league was launched in very public manner and it needs to continue that way until it becomes the norm for us.

We begin our season at home in the RSC against Joey O’Brien’s Shelbourne as they travel down to Waterford with real aspirations of winning a league title to add to their 2024 triumph. It is a very tough start for us but one that we are all but familiar with. It is the third year in a row where our first home game of the season will be against Shelbourne (2024 opening league game and the 2nd game of the season in 2025). 

They have had a very good off-season with some interesting signings, and how those signings adapt to the League of Ireland will be interesting - but if they hit the ground running they will be a force to be reckoned with. We will obviously want to have a lot to say with how they start their season and hopefully we can put a good performance in and give our supporters some opening day cheer.

For us, this year is all about trying to break into the upper echelon of the league. There are four or five teams who will have ambitions of winning the title this season and their budgets are a lot more than the other five sides. It is almost two leagues in the one, and or aim us to disrupt that upper half. I really believe we can do that, and I know the window isn’t closed for another three weeks, so we will only get stronger if we can land some of the targets that I know that the manager has his eye on. 

It is a very difficult though because of the money that the other sides have at their disposal. It is one thing identifying potential signings to bring to the football club, but it is another thing to execute those signings without being hijacked - as we have been with a few players in the past that we had been chasing throughout the transfer window.

For me, it would be great if we consolidated our league position and added a great cup run to it. We have to look at the likes of Drogheda United as inspiration, who in 2024 won the FAI Cup and then took a huge step forward in the league ethe following season. It has been a long time since Waterford won a trophy at the top level of Irish football and hopefully this is the year.

I’m personally looking forward to the season ahead. I may be turning 38 in April, but I don’t see this as my final swansong; in fact, I think there is still a lot more to come and I am very happy at the football club and how things have been going recently. I really believe there is so much potential at Waterford and I hope I can contribute a lot to the club on and off the pitch for many years to come, especially in the short term of the next couple of years on the pitch. 

So, it is an exciting time for both myself and the club. It is going to be a year of ups and downs - with hopefully more ups than downs.