LUCAN VILLAGE IS an apt place to meet Rory Gaffney, the best player in the country as voted for by his peers last season.
When he signed for Shamrock Rovers from Salford City in the final few hours of the 2020 transfer window, following what he describes as โa shit end to my time in Englandโ, the Galwegian visited the west Dublin suburb looking for a new place to live with his partner Sinead.
After Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester in the United Kingdom, this was the coupleโs latest stop on a football journey which spanned the highs of promotion to League One to the lows of a disastrous loan spell with Walsall, when his own fans would issue a regular cry of โfuck off, Gaffneyโ.
A change was needed.
Rovers called, and Lucan seemed ideal. Close to the clubโs Roadstone training base, as well as Tallaght Stadium, it would also be handy to get on the M4 for trips back to family and friends in Tuam.
โBut I didnโt really check the price of rent before deciding. Jesus,โ Gaffney sighs. โWe quickly realised we couldnโt afford to live in Dublin. There were some places around here, small one-bedroom apartments, and they were looking for โฌ2,000 a month.โ
That is when they made the decision to try find somewhere more affordable closer to where the pair both grew up, and when Sinead was able to get a job in social care with Tulsa, it just made sense.
โShe has always left jobs for me, moved from where she was and given up her own career when I have moved,โ Gaffney, who also has a degree in accounting from University of Galway, explains.
Another sad quirk of the countryโs current housing market provided Gaffney with an opportunity. When one ghost estate in Tuam that had been left in disarray was finally finished off by a local developer, it meant the couple were able to settle by buying rather than renting.
Then Covid hit, adding another layer of complexity to a move Gaffney knew he always wanted to make.
โEven as a kid, I had something for Rovers,โ he explains. โTuam Celtic have green and white Hoops, thereโs Celtic of course, but it was more than that.
โThey always brought good crowds with them, the fans would have flares going off. Playing in the league with Limerick, you would see Rovers players and they always looked the part. Then you join, you get a real sense of it here, and it is just a proper football club.
My experiences of English football were more cut throat, lads would be travelling to clubs and not from the area. I was one of them, sure. There might be a car pool or staying over in a hotel a couple of nights a week.
โRovers nearly feels like a Gaelic club atmosphere. It feels more community based. Itโs hard to put a finger on it.
โI suppose itโs easy to say we all get on too when you win most weeks,โ Gaffney adds. โItโs a lot easier to get on with lads when youโre winning.โ
Last year could hardly have gone any better for the striker, who not only led the line with 15 goals โ three in Europe โ but performed with verve and tenacity.
That renaissance in 2022 is all the more impressive considering an Achilles injury during his first campaign back left him โliving on a bike doing recoveryโ and wondering about what the future would hold.
โHonestly, I didnโt know if I was going to make it back from that,โ he admits. โIt wasnโt even that the injury was that bad.
โYouโre kind of thinking to yourself, โIโm in my 30s, I havenโt played much football for six months and Iโm going to be out for another six monthsโ. You know, you do start thinking time could be catching up with you.
โFootball, ye know, itโs hard to explain football. How things can happen for you. There are also not many players that make it past 34,โ he adds, that birthday coming in October.
โYou know whatโs going to happen: if you donโt do the business, they will find somebody else,โ Gaffney, who explains how he often watches his matches back two or three times on LOI TV in order to dissect his own game, adds.
โThatโs the job youโre in. You canโt be keeping people along for sympathy or because they did well in the past. If youโre not doing the job that you are paid to, someone else will get a chance to show they can do it.โ
Thatโs the nature of the beast, even for a club that has got a strong connection within the dressing room. Rovers are targeting an historic four-in-a-row of league titles, as well as hoping to progress in Europe after last seasonโs Europa Conference League group stage campaign, and boss Stephen Bradley has added reinforcements.
Striker Johnny Kenny, formerly of Sligo Rovers, has joined on loan from Celtic. Gaffney has been buoyed by the teenagerโs arrival, especially as he is now a housemate during the couple of nights a week that he spends in the club house which is within walking distance of Roadstone.
โApparently itโs the culchie house, which for some of the Dublin lads means anyone from outside the M50,โ Gaffney jokes, of the digs he also shares with Lee Grace, Liam Burt (another new signing from Bohemians) and Leon Pohls.
โJohnny is mature, he can stand up for himself and is a serious athlete,โ Gaffney continues. โHe uses his body really well. I wasnโt like that at 19, Jesus no, I was hiding out on the wing waiting for soft ball.
โI wasnโt doing what he as at that age, I think he will be really good for us.โ
Derry City are viewed as the main challengers given their rise under Ruadihri Higgins last term, finishing second and lifting the FAI Cup.
Gaffney expects another battle for supremacy as they get their campaign underway away to Sligo Rovers tonight, 24 hours after the Candystripes drew 1-1 with St Patrickโs Athletic.
โLast year it caught up with us in the end as we didnโt give a good account of ourselves in the group stages, we were chasing the league and we had to, because if we didnโt, it would have given Derry a leg up,โ he reasons.
โTheyโre well backed as it is now with their owner so if they got the league and the money that comes with the Euro run, they could be hard to stop.
โYou have to win the league.โ
Thatโs the benchmark for Gaffney and Rovers once again.
Great season last year from Rory and i think with John Kenny beside him this year and maybe taking a bit of pressure off him and allowing him to have a bit more rest, he could even be better. Here we go 4 in a row.