John Caulfield: We're not going to pull players from Leinster over to Galway

Though he played down their faint title hopes during last season's hectic run-in, John Caulfield doesn't take that well to the suggestion that Galway United may have "over-performed" in 2024.

"Where should we have been last year?" he says, after a slightly tense pause.

Eh, well. Em. You know... First year after promotion...

"Yeah but the first year I gave up amateur football to go over Cork City, we took it to the last game of the season to be in with a chance of winning the league (in 2014). And they'd finished third bottom the year before (sixth but we won't quibble).

"Ollie and myself work our a**e off to get players to work hard. We go into compete in every match thinking we can win and give everybody a game. I think last year that's what we showed.

"We didn't score enough goals. Defensively, we were okay. But this is probably a tougher league than last year. For us it is about establishing ourself in the league alongside everyone else."

The Galway United manager was speaking to reporters at the 2025 League of Ireland launch, which was taking place in an impressive drawing room in Dublin's Mansion House. Three years earlier, the same launch was held on the roof garden of Clarehall Shopping Centre in Darndale, a less plush sounding location although one that had its advantages.

For one thing, the builders weren't booked in on the same day in Darndale. During the Caulfield chat last week, a Black & Decker drill started boring holes in the room above, which caused reporters to wince and glance around at the panicked league officials. Caulfield, however, ploughed on and kept going with his answers as if no disturbance was audible.

It was at the 2022 launch where Caulfield's legendary assistant Ollie Horgan spoke of his