Preview: Rovers remain team to beat in 2022 title race

Ten years on from their last back-to-back league title success, Shamrock Rovers repeated the feat by winning the 2021 SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title.

Stephen Bradley's side ended up claiming the title with 16 points to spare from nearest rivals St Patrick’s Athletic, and five more ahead of third-placed Sligo Rovers.

The Hoops will now look to join the very select three-in-a-row club, which consists of Dundalk (2014-16), Waterford (1967/68-1969/70), and the now defunct Cork United (1940/41-1942/43). Remarkably, all three great teams actually secured five titles over a six-year period.

Perhaps the greatest of all, the Shamrock Rovers team of the 1980s remain the only side to secure four leagues in succession, from the 1983-84 season through to the zenith of the spring of 1987 ahead of the team’s break-up amidst the madness of the sale of Milltown.

Teams from other eras could claim to be part of the conversation, including the other Dublin trio of St Pat’s (three titles), Shels (five titles) and Bohs (four titles), who dominated the Premier Division for the best part of 15 years from the 1995-96 season to 2009.

Ahead of the upcoming 36-game season, joining those great sides will be far from Bradley’s mindset as his side look to defend the title, while Rovers fans will be reflecting more on what happened to the side after the team’s last back-to-back success.

Michael O’Neill parted company with Rovers at the end of the 2011 season and the club ended up taking several steps backwards before finally moving forward again with several managers unable to challenge for the title as Dundalk became the top team in the country.

But the Dublin club, as a whole, is in a far healthier state now compared to 2011 as the investment