Should the Domestic players be playing on the national squad

[eamo1]

I always thought Owen Heary should have and still could get a cap.I suppose he didnt want to go to England but that guy could have played Premiership football.There has been FAR worse defenders and full backs in the premiership then him and also if Kelly can get a game at right back for Ireland then Heary should aswell.I've NEVER seen him have a bad game!!!

[tiktok]

Just because the player is good enough doesn't mean they warrant a call-up. Thet have to consistantly be doing good in a good league, and the LOI unfortunately isn't good enough yet.

Plenty of players in our current squad are warming the benches and not getting games at all in their 'good leagues', so by your logic, they shouldn't be picked. The conceit that someone is automatically better when they move to England is the kind of nonsense that saw Alan Bennett get a call up on the back of a reserve game for reading when he's been peforming at a consistently high level in the domestic league and against european competition for Cork City over a number of years.

If a player from the LoI is good enough, he's good enough. While at Pats, Fahey proved himself to be capable of matching and bettering any opposition he came up against in Europe, on the back of that he should ahve gotten a call-up.

Anyway, to answer the question, right now, no-one in the League is of a high enough standard, Barry Murphy as a back-up to given is probably the closest. Tokenism devalues both the national set-up and the domestic league and should be discouraged strongly.

[osarusan]

The conceit that someone is automatically better when they move to England is the kind of nonsense that saw Alan Bennett get a call up on the back of a reserve game for reading when he's been peforming at a consistently high level in the domestic league and against european competition for Cork City over a number of years.

In his defence and mine, we are not arguing that players "become better" as soon as they move to England.

Our point is that the quality of the opposition teams does play a part in deciding whether a player is ready for the national team or not. Seeing a player perform well against LOI teams is one thing - seeing the same player perform well 3 months later in the Championship or even Premier League is quite another. The player's ability will have improved marginally if at all in such a short space of time, but the standard of opposition against which the player has proven himself capable has changed significantly.

It is understandable that a national team manager would want to be as sure as possible that the player is up to international football, and I'm not sure that LOI allows a manager to see that.
(Whether the Championship does either is debatable, but it is at least closer to the level required)

Your point about exposure to European football is very valid though. even if a few games doesn't give the opportunity to determine consistency.

Your point about Bennett also, as he clearly hadn't proven himself capable, yet still got the call-up.

I think that there is a mentality of "If that (Premiership or Championship) club think he is good enough, that's good enough for the Irish squad" which needs to be eradicated.

[Scrufil]

Straightstory wrote:

Fans in Celtic jerseys. An unwelcome development. Perhaps the last straw for me was at the Ireland v San Marino game a few years ago - the last home Ireland match I've attended. Singing along to 'The Fields of Athenry' - surely the dumbest song ever written - a group of Celtic jersey wearers in front of me inserted sectarian words 'Our love was on the wing SINN FEIN, we had dreams and songs to sing IRA' etc. This had, very unfortunately, become an increasingly popular chant at Lansdowne.

The singing about the IRA might be regarded as sectarian, but singing about Sinn Féin is no more sectarian than using the words : Sinne Fianna Fáil during the Irish national anthem. Nor do I agree that the Fields of Athenry is a dumb song. Celtic shirts are as unwelcome a sight to me as any foreign shirt that attempts to draw links to Ireland. Even certain League of Ireland shirts like Home Farm Everton in the past were enough to make me want to vomit, not to mention the current dubious policy of the likes of Derry becoming a feeder club for Celtic. I cannot see for the life of me how a stated policy of this type does not contravene EU trade laws.

How does anyone seriously expect any League of Ireland player to make the senior international squad when there is no free weekend/midweek preceeding Irish International games? It is hard enough when teams lose players to U21 international matches.

Jay O'Shea for me could easily replace Damien Duff on the Irish squad. There have always been great goalkeepers in the League of Ireland and I think there ought to be at least one in the current Irish senior squad.

In reality until League of Ireland teams start to progress further in Europe and hold onto the players that aided this passage then there is no likelihood of League of Ireland players getting recognition from Irish management.

[pól-dcfc]

not to mention the current dubious policy of the likes of Derry becoming a feeder club for Celtic.

Are you sure about this or are you drawing conclusions from the fact that we have sold two players to Celtic in the past year?

[Scrufil]

It was very surely mooted by both Celtic and Derry for this to be the case. I daresay if you dig you will see other clubs, often junior clubs create these ties too.