Has the balance of power in Irish football shifted irrevocably?

Dundalk host Cork at Oriel Park this evening, with Stephen Kenny’s side aiming to silence the critics who believe they are no longer the top side in the country.

DUNDALK FACE CORK City this evening aiming to disprove those who believe they are no longer the best side in Ireland.

Football is cyclical. Even the greatest teams, those capable of building a dynasty, inevitably decline with time.

Between 2014 and 2016, Dundalk won three consecutive league titles. The achievement prompted comparisons with some of the best sides the League of Ireland has seen, such as the famous Shamrock Rovers ‘four-in-a-row’ team of the 1980s.

After their Europa League heroics in 2016, Stephen Kenny’s men inevitably lost key players, and their form suffered as a result.

These absences and the time it took their replacements to adapt were partially to blame for a below-par 2017, when Cork took the Oriel Park outfit’s crown, finishing seven points ahead of their rivals in the league table and denying them a fourth successive title in the process.

John Caulfield’s side also beat Dundalk for a second successive season in the FAI Cup final, with the win on penalty kicks highlighting the fine margins that separated the teams but also adding to Cork’s sense of confidence and momentum, at the expense of a club they once routinely struggled against.

Aside from the cup final, the sides met on four other occasions in 2017. The Leesiders won three and drew one, with the aggregate score 9-2 in their favour.

Cork’s progress was tempered to an extent halfway through last season, owing to the loss of key players Sean Maguire and Kevin O’Connor.

Similarly, Dundalk have been forced to do without some important individuals of late — Niclas Vemmelund, Patrick McEleney and David McMillan all left the club in the off-season.

And the start of the 2018 campaign has increased the feeling that Cork are now the Premier Division’s team to beat.

Dundalk have stuttered, drawing their opening two games 0-0, before an emphatic 8-0 defeat of Limerick provided Kenny with scope for optimism.

Cork, meanwhile, have excelled, winning all three opening games, most recently earning a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Sligo Rovers, in which off-season recruit Graham Cummins claimed a hat-trick.

In addition, the President’s Cup encounter panned out in Cork’s favour. Despite the reigning champions going 2-0 down to Dundalk, they ultimately showed admirable resilience to win 4-2 following an impressive second-half comeback.

Nevertheless, Caulfield remains wary of the side most likely to challenge his men for the league title this season.

The league is a marathon and this is the fourth game, so there is a long way to go and Friday’s game won’t determine anything. I think Dundalk will be back to basics; [Brian] Gartland and [Stephen] O’Donnell didn’t play in the President’s Cup, but they are both back and you would expect they might come in. [Pat] Hoban has a couple of games under his belt, so I expect they will be back to a familiar staring eleven.

“They have played three games, they haven’t conceded, and they are unbeaten. They got eight goals in their last game and will feel they are right back on track. We know it will be an incredibly tough game; it is always difficult up there and nothing but a top performance from us will get us the result.

“We said all along that we felt we would create more chances and score goals this year, and early indications are good, but there is a long way to go yet. Everyone is training hard and the guys on the bench are pushing to get games. It will be a very competitive game on Friday.”

One man aiming to prevent Cork from continuing their unbeaten start is Ronan Murray, the 26-year-old attacker who Dundalk signed pre-season, after his impressive campaign with Galway last year.

The former Ipswich player registered a brace against the Rebels in the President’s Cup, and he will be hoping to have a similar impact for this evening’s fixture, which kicks off at 8pm and will be shown live on eir Sport.

“We had an excellent win against Limerick, to win 8-0 I think we must have played well. We would have taken great confidence going into the Derry game, but unfortunately that was postponed,” the Mayo native told Dundalk’s official website.

We could have done with playing the game in the Brandywell but our focus in on Cork now on Friday so hopefully we can bring that confidence in to that and score some more goals.

“Cork will be a big game. We’ve already played them here in the President’s Cup so we’ve got a feel for what the game is like and it can only be even bigger again now as it’s a league game.

“I’m expecting a big crowd here at Oriel Park, a big atmosphere and it will be all guns blazing.”

Whether Murray and co can halt Cork’s winning run remains to be seen, but even at this early stage of the season, it seems crucial that they at least avoid defeat.

As it stands, Caulfield’s side do not look like a team who will drop many points and a loss would leave Dundalk seven points off their rivals, thereby facing a significant uphill task in their bid to reclaim the title they finally surrendered last year.