Loi Weekly

Johnny McDonnell and Greg Bolger joined the lads in studio to talk about talented midfield players after Jack Byrne's call into the Ireland squad. Greg tells us about the physical changes that have contributed to an upturn in his performances with top of the table Shamrock Rovers - but says that nobody in Tallaght is getting ahead of themselves despite the best attempts of the two Johnnys to tell him that this could be Rovers' year. Gibraltar weather, Giovanni Trapattoni's boat to Athlone and the mandatory Galway reference also get an airing on this week's show.

No Ward no problem. Dan holds court in studio as Johnny is away on Cheltenham duty, but don't worry he still gives his thoughts on LOI proceedings & on Countdowns highest rated show ever. Six time league winner Stevie O'Donnell joined us in studio to discuss his new career off the pitch with his new club Dundalk, while PFAI Player Executive Ollie Cahill and his five league medals were also in attendance. We also caught with Derry City fan & player Ciaron Harkin, while reminiscing about European nights, Paddy McCourt and of course, "Weso".

Alan Reynolds and Johnny Dunleavy both make long trips to our Dublin studio for episode four, with "Rennie" discussing recent tensions with Cork City and his theory on why he was brought in to work with John Caulfield back in 2016. “JD” also reflects on his years at Turner's Cross but is revelling in his new role at Sligo Rovers. The lads also discuss the joys of coaching courses and the challenge of integrating overseas recruits to LOI dressing rooms. All the while, an under-par Dan struggles through the show as Johnny talks up the health of the First Division.

3 is the magic number, yes its an early pod, but only a few hours after losing a lead and the game away to champions Dundalk, making it three defeats from three games, UCD manager Collie O'Neill still comes into studio to chat to the lads about the season so far. Johnny catches up with Shane Supple after Bohs win another Dublin derby, while the lads discuss revolutionary new statistical data that managers have access to – as well as the second and third round of games. Aaron Greene red card, yes or no?

Belvedere boys Sean Kavanagh and Jake Hyland are reunited for this week's pod to reflect on their childhood penalty shootout heartache and the grown-up reality of football in England and Ireland. Sean discusses the loneliness of his final days at Fulham and the lift he received from coming back to Shamrock Rovers. Drogheda skipper Jake opens up on his horrific hospital experience after breaking his leg last October. We also hear from Limerick boss Tommy Barrett ahead of the First Division's big kickoff and St Patrick's Athletic stalwart Ian Bermingham discusses their opening win over Cork City.

Third season syndrome is upon us & LOI Weekly is going strong....somewhat so at least. Dan & Johnny return with a strong opening act as the new Shels boss Ian Morris & Bray's new recruit Paul Keegan join the lads in studio, while we also hear from Dundalk's Sean Hoare about life without Stephen Kenny & Derry City's new manager Declan Devine about his return at the helm.

It's the final show of the season and two of LOI Weekly's most consistent performers, Shane Supple and Ger O'Brien, joined the lads in studios to reflect on the year that was and outline their hopes for the year ahead. Are Dundalk streets ahead of the pack? Will the FAI repeat the same fixture mistakes? Why can't everybody just get along? Ger talks changes at St Patrick's Athletic and the challenges facing younger players who have reached a crossroads. Shane outlines his frustration at another exodus from Dalymount Park after a season that hinted at so much promise. We also discuss the early transfer business with a new addition to Johnny's wardrobe setting him up nicely for the winter.

Ger Lyttle, whose time at Sligo Rovers came to an end recently, calls to the studio to discuss his time in the League of Ireland and his future plans – including a job in the league that appeals to him. He also discusses the FAI Cup final with Dan and Johnny as the three guys agree on who will win the 2018 decider. Dane Massey speaks about the baby boom at Oriel Park and the reason to be excited about another game with Cork, Dan implores football fans in the southwest to get out and watch Paddy McCourt for the last time.

It’s awards season on LOI Weekly with Stephen McGuinness from the PFAI in to reveal the candidates for player of the year, young player of the year and the team of the year - as voted by the players themselves. Waterford’s Bastian Hery discusses Irish weather and why the League of Ireland climate is not attractive to some outsiders. And Bohs flier Daniel Kelly discusses his speedy rise from amateur football

'O amor está no ar’, which is Portuguese for ‘Johnny ain’t here’. He’s a long gone Johnny and he’s left Dan with the extremely capable if somewhat Aviva weary Aidan Fitzmaurice from The Herald. No goals in two games at Lansdowne but we have Dundalk assistant manager and serial head nodder Vinny Perth to agree again with Stephen Kenny and why shouldn’t he? Dundalk are top of the pile again and probably would’ve given Wales a better game. Bray’s John Sullivan juggles working in a Ben Dunne gym with a playing career, and Bohs marketing director Daniel Lambert on the plans for Dalyer 2. All this and no 4 minute hangover spiel from a lovesick racing hack. They’ll be all over twitter looking for it now, wait 'n see….

From the bowels of eir Towers comes episode thirty five-five-ive. Shane Keegan, once of Galway United but now a scribe of the gin swilling, trenchcoat wearing fourth estate, lists all the players he tried to sign and mostly failed to. Kevin Doherty from Drogheda takes the M1 south to the Dublin 8 postcode and 'delivers' his verdict on an All Ireland league as well as life as a postman. Our anchormen Dan and Johnny report on Gypsies in Cork, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, Dundalk Success and Waterford taking their place in Europe. No, it's not the Six One News, it's journalism, but not as you know it...

The gloves are off today when Shamrock Rovers defender and Andros Townsend stand-in Roberto Lopes talks tackles, derbies, past misdemeanours and Cape Verde. The gloves go back on when Johnny gets sent to Coventry and talks about the International setup with all round Portsmouth nice guy Ronan Curtis. We keep it brief this week, and with just over an hour played we finally put to bed the latest FIFA bribery scandal that was really all our own doing. Happy Birthday Sligo and it was never a peno!

Leaves get browner, evenings get shorter and teenage boys start to glaze over, because every autumn we do an outside broadcast and EA Sports launch the annual upgrade of their FIFA game. Wounded gunslinger, Johnny Ward, gets the miranda rights from twitter over last night’s Hobangate on the wireless while Sheriff Dan does verbal high fives with Sean Gannon after Dundalk all but secure this year's title and maybe next year’s too? We nab Ian Bermingham to get his two cents on the departure of manager Liam Buckley, Darragh Leahy on the greatest Bohemian revolution since the 1989 Velvet Revolution in…Bohemia (look it up) and David Cawley on the season in Sligo, which, by the way, was never in Czechoslovakia. We have Rovers' revival, the Dutch Gold Cup, LOI lunatics, RTA premonitions and the big semi final on Sunday! Oh, and go and do a better review than this and you may end up getting your digital arse handed to you by 10 year old Ronaldos. Yes, “It’s in the game”!

Dan’s back from the east and there’s a storm a brewing. Considering a second career as a tennis umpire after his 17th rehabilitation and nearly as many podcast appearances, compulsive score checker Stephen O’Donnell becomes the first player to endorse a marriage preparation type course on the pod whilst screaming for new balls please in Derry. Fresh from his celebratory glass of Pinot Noir, Drogheda native Collie O’Neill is settling into his new south Dublin persona as he steers a triumphant UCD class of 2018 to the First Division title. We have audio from Neal Horgan as Cork self destruct in Dalyer and a post match interview with another of last weekends winner's, Kenny Shiels from Derry. There’s the last days of Romanian Dictators, Keepers taking penos, the Johnny Ward proposed 16 team league and Whats a WhatsApp Wolf Whatsapping in the Week? Try saying that three times with a can of Dutch Gold Dinny….

They say that Journalism is a craft that takes years to learn. It's like golf. You never get it right all the time. It's a game of fewer errors, better facts, and better reporting. Well, that said we have two Johnny Caddys in eir Towers today. Johnny McDonnell picks the clubs and Johnny Ward yells ‘fore’ for 9 handicapper and grade 2 jockey Eoghan Stokes, who sometimes plays for Bohemians as a side gig. We have WhatsApp audio from Derry maestro Aaron McEneff on the week they play in the EA Sports Cup Final. We ask if managers should be allowed tog out in shorts, discover how pester power from a 6 year old can result in a debut for Leeds, and tee up the great LOI Weekly Golfing Challenge. All this and Dan on the phone from Poland to discuss the recent shenanigans in the Irish camp. At least no one was left in Newry this time…..

Following Dublin’s win on Sunday we have more missing persons than a 1970’s milk carton. Paddy Kavanagh is still AWOL and so is our Location Manager. You’ve heard of the Old Ronaldo and the new Ronaldo, well this week we have the Underestimated Ronaldo who sometimes turns up at UCD and calls himself Gary O’Neill. No, not THAT Gary O’Neill! The one from Kerry, where he was the only soccer player in the village. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Luke Byrne ankled it into the ground floor studio to weigh in on the Declan Rice affair, Johnny quizzes Dinny Corcoran from Bohs on the Irn-Bru cup and when THE big question is answered we get all gastronomical about Dutch bastard cousins and pretentious pale ales before Dan’s day gets ruined when he finds an expired 'Fosters Dollar' in an old sock drawer. Oh and there’s some football in there somewhere too….

In 1966 Bob Dylan told Columbia Records that he felt the quality of the material he had recorded for ‘Blonde on Blonde’ was too good to compress onto a single long playing record. Columbia agreed and the double album was born. This weeks podcast continues in the spirit of that seminal masterpiece. Well it’s long. Kevin Kilbane, Preston North End’s 73rd ranked past player and Ireland’s third most capped player joins us in studio mid bagel. On that 1966 record, one song, ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’ was so gut wrenchingly honest and poignant that it took up the entire side of one of the discs. Kevin’s opinions on the Declan Rice affair are as necessary listening in this arena as Bob’s Arabian drums where back then. We also have Daryl Horgan on the phone after his switch to a ‘Cabbage and Ribs’ diet, and Greg Bolger of Shamrock Rovers fresh from the victory over Dundalk. There’s lots to savour in this weeks episode, hot or cold balls, the redundancy of signposts, podcasts as torture methods, and Jamie O’Hara

In place of an absent Paddy Kavanagh, and in these times of religious tumult we present one Darragh Markey who has embodied the struggles of his native land as he describes his odyssey from the consecrated halls of the seminary in Maynooth to the beckoning lupine financial jungles via a sporting detour in Inchicore. Is this the man 'who’s dark hair would weave a snare that Johnny might one day rue’? The 'Wolf of Thomas Davis Street' talks with our Haribo divided hosts about fixture congestion and repeat exams, Cork City, European disappointments and the FAI Cup. From the stoney grey soil of Donegal we have a decidedly rustic phone connection to Ollie Horgan for a chat as optimistic as dry black bread and sugarless tea. All of this plus the usual predictions, our second curse word, in depth analysis, wedding ring collections and quick….Close.Close.Close.Close.

The craic was flying in the studio this week or maybe it was just the crackly phone line as we heard from new Bray owner Niall O'Driscoll about trying to start from scratch and get the local public back on board and Sligo Rovers midfielder Lee-J-Lynch on the squad decision to forfeit a portion of their wages following their FAI Cup loss to Longford. But the real shock of the weekend was Drogheda's win over Shamrock Rovers and their manager Tim Clancy popped in to discuss the joys of management, 87th minute phone calls from Spain and plans to add to his squad both at home and at work.

The taxi lights were off for an hour with Johnny McDonnell and Ger Rowe joining Johnny and Dan to discuss their football history, stranded strikers in Newry and modern coaching. Dundalk's stalled European campaign is dissected, and the lads examine how Cork City might fare against Rosenborg. Ger gives the lowdown on the FAI Cup underdogs plotting to cause the biggest upset since Johnny Mc was passed over for Diego Costa. Cobh boss Stephen Henderson phones in to discuss his journey back to sobriety following their EA Sports Cup heroics.