Sport: Dundalk's worrying woes

It’s less than four years since Dundalk played Arsenal in the Europa League. While the Lilywhites’ era of supremacy had passed its peak by then, they still won the FAI Cup in 2020, beating newly crowned league champions Shamrock Rovers after extra time in the final.

The following season was when the farcical elements began to creep in, with a myriad of managerial changes. The absurdity was summed up by the fact that the Italian Filippo Giovagnoli, who began the year in charge, didn’t have the necessary coaching badges and had to be described as head coach rather than manager.

American owners Peak6 Investments sold up at the end of that year and former owner Andy Connolly led a consortium that included local firm STATSports. While they remained in the top half of the table, the glory days did not return. Then, at the end of last season, US-based Brian Ainscough – who had been involved in the running of Kerry FC – took over but it did not lead to any great stability.

When manager Stephen O’Donnell was sacked early in the season, Brian Gartland and Liam Burns took over on an interim basis before Noel King – who had last managed a men’s club team in 2003 – was appointed.

Medical reasons meant that his stint lasted just three weeks and Jon Daly was given what was a poisoned chalice. Poor results saw them slide to the bottom of the table and Daly confirmed after a loss to St Patrick’s Athletic earlier this month that players and staff had not been paid.

With Ainscough urgently seeking an injection of extra funding, the rumours swirled last weekend – one rogue social media account purporting to be an official club outlet suggested that it would be wound up on Monday. Whatever happens, the overall picture is not rosy.

Who could have predicted this? Oh, anybody who has paid more than a passing interest in the League of Ireland.

It’s a tale as old as time – businesspeople come up with the brainwave that they will take over a club, make them domestically successful and then turn handsome profits with the money from competing in European competitions.

The only problem is that, if you have more than a few such geniuses chasing the same thing, someone has to lose and the consequences are serious.

The best-case scenario now is Dundalk do survive and the club’s players, coaching staff and administrative staff are made unemployed. Even then, there would be little to show for a glorious half-decade where they were the force in Irish football. Oriel Park is in dire need of improvement but, despite all the success the club was enjoying, the ground received minimal upgrades.

One might also question the FAI’s role in this and to what extent it tests the suitability of potential owners.

Then again, when the big takeaway from last week’s AGM of the association was the termination of the Emerging Talent Programme – essentially putting the duty of developing elite players on the clubs, but without

additional funding – it’s hardly surprising that there are so many other problems.

Given that it is normally such a solitary pursuit, team golf is a strange dynamic to have to adapt to.

Going into last weekend’s Solheim Cup against the USA, Cavan’s Leona Maguire had the best aggregate record in the European team, having won seven of her previous ten outings across singles and pairs in 2021 and 2023.

Europe had held the trophy since 2019 – they won 2021 and last year’s event was tied – and so the average observer would have expected Maguire to feature heavily in the latest defence.

Instead, after playing Friday afternoon’s fourball, Maguire sat out both sessions on Saturday. Apropos of nothing, Europe trailed 10-6 going into Sunday. Every player competes in singles on the final day and Maguire kept up her perfect record in that code as she beat Ally Ewing 4 and 3 and kept European hopes alive

As anyone who has ever been benched in a team sport will know, it makes for an uneasy mix of emotions – wanting the team to win but, equally, wanting to be in a position to bring that about.

Unfortunately, there are no mid-game substitutions allowed in golf and so all Maguire could do was wait until Sunday to show her mettle, which she did.

“I feel like I’ve been playing really great golf all week in practice,” she said, “and it was a bitter pill to swallow to be sat out for as many sessions as I was, but I thought I got a point to prove today. I’m a team player, and all I could do today was come out and win my point, and that’s what I did.”

In professional golf, sometimes it’s as much about the professionalism as the golf.

It’s a strange-looking club rugby calendar this season – the United Rugby Championship only commences this weekend and we have to wait until early December for the beginning of European fare.

After such a long 2023-24 campaign, it’s likely to take time to get up to speed and the early rounds can often have a phoney-war feel to them.

In that regard, it’s a good thing that the opening set of fixtures features Connacht welcoming Munster to Dexcom Stadium (formerly The Showgrounds) on Saturday evening. Irish derbies always have an extra element to them and the fact that both provinces had disappointing seasons last year should mean they will be keen to start off positively.

Leinster’s trip to Edinburgh on Friday night gets the season going while Ulster host Glasgow Warriors on Saturday.