Loi Weekly

It's an early edition this week with Johnny in studio with his bags packed for Galway and Dan bound for Cyprus. The lads hear from Paul O'Conor on changes at Bray and Tim Clancy on stadium news at Drogheda. Dundalk's Europa League chances are discussed, in addition to Johnny's achy steaky heart - he won't be able to bring one of Shanahan's finest on a night out. Sister Assumpta, Tesco Express & all of the weekend's games get a mention in a pod that's wrapped up before half-time.

Johnny and Dan are joined this week by debutant Robbie Benson and LOI Weekly regular Ger O'Brien. Robbie talks all things Dundalk including THAT goal by Michael Duffy, Stephen Kenny's European focus, and his belated decision to commit to life as a professional footballer. Ger reacts to this week's disappointing news on the Richmond Arena proposal and offers an update on the St Patrick's Athletic plan from here. We also answer some of your Twitter questions and debate if last week's European results were actually worth celebrating. And there's a shocking twist in the race for the steak dinner

Dan is back!!! The two lads are reunited and we also welcome PFAI General Secretary Stephen McGuinness into studio to update us on all of the goings on at both Limerick and Bray Wanderers. Over the course of the hour Stephen answers many of the burning questions that LOI fans have been asking over the past 7 days. We also discuss Cork's Champions League elimination and look ahead to the Europa League Qualifiers tomorrow night.

A European 'Detente' is called as we pour whisky on an old toothache and make it a 'Dent-ente' perhaps. Yes, Hostilities are eased and Damien Lynch googles into the top floor of LOI Towers to analyse a miffed (yes, miffed) Dan's 'Postcard from the East' which looks to the west for the most underperforming team in the league. Nice guy Ronan Finn takes a break from disassembling IKEA furniture to talk wunderkinds in Tallaght and European nights. Multitasking Ruaidhrí Higgins gets a proper corporate title as he casts an eye over Dundalk's opposition on Thursday and you'll never guess who Damo thinks will win the league! Yeah you will...

Our cool byline writer is off in Portugal consoling those who believed the Ronaldo hype in his inimitable Kerouacesque way. Portugals gain is LOI's loss, not least with the theme tune, but we've cobbled together a pretty kick ass show with Shane Keegan and Johnny and Sam Verdon talking about printing and Galway and lone strikers and eight month olds and lots lots more, and we'll have our regular skewed view of all things football next week when we get our boy back from the Iberians....but this weeks show might be a classic!

So Dan has exiled himself to Mother Russia for the World Cup exactly 44 years ago to the day when we had the biggest break up in pop history. Yes, that was the day Cher finally said Noka to Sonny and ran off with an Allman brother. The Herald’s Aidan Fitzmaurice may not be a master of that swampy southern sound but he speaks fluent Russian and Polish so he’s exactly the kind of squad depth you need to get through a World Cup, especially in this confounded heat! Yes, this week we get all pessimistic about the clubs chances in Europe, we look forward to the big one between Dundalk and Cork with a surprise caller from the dugout, those darn Saudis get a mention again, and there’s the usual predictions and analysis. So while they keep on saying we’re young and we don’t know, we kinda do…..Babe!

Like a puzzle dumped out of a box we pick up the pieces of the week that includes a conversation with Jonathan Corbett from Galway on a positive vote for Saudi invasion plans west of the Shannon. The internationally renowned and dubiously clobbered goalkeeping Bohemian, Shane Supple makes a return trip to the unfurnished studio on the 7th floor of LOI Towers to shed light on the Watergate scandal in Turners Cross, Roy Keane’s new found allegiance to the Gypsies and much more. Dan tries to feign interest while constantly checking his Russian flight itinerary. Low key Johnny Ward struggles to contain himself during the 8:40 at Naas and there’s ne’er a preview in sight because as the droopy guy from 'Friends' so infuriatingly kept telling us during the nineties, “We were on a break!"

Hujum. That’s Arabic for attack and this weeks show is full of massive attacks. The arthritic Karl Sheppard picks up the phone to discuss Johnny's attacks on Cork, Alan Reynolds is alive, black and blue and mad as ever after his hujum. Johnny, like a big green bottle of fizz on a hospital bedside locker is 7 up on the predictions front and has news of the full on Arabian hujum down the Dyke Road. Dan, who’s dreams of getting a free steak dinner are crumbling like china in his hands, is in studio to temper Johnny’s giddy Galway excitement, and ‘No No’ we haven’t got a Pat Dolan impression or for that matter an anthem recital, but Homer's back and that makes episode 18 a World Cup tinged, truly global, must listen……and it’s not too long either.

This week we have an exclusive pitch side interview with Mike Treacy the American born Dundalk chairman who promises that there's no plans to change the spelling to 'Dundawk'. He doesn't disappoint in a very frank and in depth interview that should answer a whole lot of questions and even hurls a three word cliche into the mix much to Johnny's amusement who can't resist Tom Berengering him into some weird football version of The Field where Oriel Park is leased by a heavily bearded wino with a toothless idiot sycophant. Johnny, by the way was down south of our own Mason Dixon line nabbing post match interviews with Derry's Kenny Shiels and Cork's Colm Horgan over the weekend before catching Cobh and Galway. It's been 40 years since a league player scored in the green shirt and we look at Graham Burke's prospects of changing shirt numbers. Dan reveals he hates rating his work or is that his ratings work or is that hating his work. Anyway, its a solid "7" episode in the number 17 shirt even if it went into Stev

A suspiciously overtanned Johnny McDonnell pops in to offer his unique wit and wisdom on the International team and suggests UCD may be adopting the laid back student ethos a little too much. Reports of Alan Reynolds' demise gets exaggerated. Alan Bennett joins us on the line from Cork with his take on that Ireland v France game, he also offers an intriguing new Freudian biscuit theory and takes on Johnny's continued case against Cork's style of play while Dan gets all analysis-isy with the fixture dates. So in the end, who gets the Ginger Nuts and who had the sunbeds? As if any of it really mattered....

In to celebrate Bob Dylan’s 77th birthday we have, Kevin Toner who apparently is the only player they come to watch at Richmond Park. Hailing from Little Finglas, JohnnyLoganville in County Meath, Kevin talks about Arsenal’s front three as well as playing left wing back against the Toon army. Ger O’Brien, coach at the very same club, keeps him company and weighs in on the League’s call ups to the International squad as well as the ordeals of players returning home from across the water. Johnny has another adventure in a bookie shop, Dan has a ways to go to catch up on the steak dinner stakes and you know something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you...Mister Jones? We should’ve really had a "Mister Jones" on the show to make that last line work.

After turning down 'opportunities' at corporate heavyweights Google and AIB, ex Sheffield Wednesday, UCD and Shamrock Rovers star Paul Corry took the 'opportunity' to critique a very hungover Johnny Ward's attempt at southside chic ahead of his trip to Cabinteely. Dan just beat the Ed Sheeran traffic from Bermingham and Brian Gartland took time out from Dundalk's busy schedule to drop by and discuss among other things, when a defender wants a 5-4 win scoreline and the importance of mental toughness. Johnny tries to cajole Saint Pat's captain Ian Bermingham to the pub, Rhys McCabe gets the Sligo Rovers Gaelic Football hazing and there really is nothing like wine in Wexford. Except maybe a heino in sockless shoes.

After failing to reboot the EI105 red-eye from New York, a totally unprepared and jetlagged Johnny Ward had Pat Fenlons recent guest appearance on the pod completely erased from his memory as he welcomed our ‘first’ Waterford guests of the season. Dave Webster and the veteran Paul Keegan joined Dan and Johnny from the relegation threatened Waterford FC to talk down their chances of remaining in the Premier Division. Along the way there were car shared detours into Doncaster pubs, alternative Belgian Eurovision entries, the benefits of characters over footballers in the dressing room, and does Pat Dolan even bother to read Johnny’s racing columns? If you want an honest appraisal of whether this year’s league is a two horse race, you won’t find it here...

Thoroughly modern manager Owen Heary drops by dressed in full Shels regalia to bat away insults about his weight and shed light on the new ownership and leadership situation at Tolka Park. The battle of Wounded Knee continues between one time serious footballer Des Curran and total pro Johnny Ward as he ducks the hard questions about the top four. Dan McDonnell is on hand to adjudicate and finally answer a question with one word. There’s two rounds of fixtures to look back on, Pats V Rovers amongst the previews, Student Scholarships, rugby pitches in Cabinteely and Johnny’s TV editing masterclass. Where would you get quality, professional, objective, compelling, informed, and most of all entertaining League of Ireland podcast gold? Answers on a postcard to…..

Total Podcasting this week! Comparisons with the Holland team of '74 will be justified as we present guest, or rather guest host, Pat Fenlon who takes to the pod like a Henrik Larsson parachuted in for January. It's the big two this week, and we have Jimmy Keohane from Cork and the controversially pronounced Patrick Hoban from Dundalk lighting up the phone lines. There's Pat's take on Rovers, Why he doesn't miss managing, behind the scenes at Waterford, a pink shirt and when not to tweet. All this from seven flights up in Dublin 7. Enjoy!

The length of this weeks pod is directly proportional to the number of fixtures, upsets, red cards and media training opportunities spurned by our studio guest Trevor Croly. Fresh from victory at the Dublin Derby and defeat in Derry, the Bohs number 2 talks about the 'Peoples Club', fixture congestion, Keith Long's recruitment and an underappreciated dress sense. Johnny takes up for an under fire Stephen Bradley and continues to miss goals, literally, at Bray and spends a windswept and interesting few minutes with Cork City’s Conor McCormack. King Kenny Shiels is on the phone from Derry because we won't pay his travel expenses and Dan is on the naughty step for using curse words at Bray. All this bookended by the best sig tune in all of Christendom!

In a breaking news episode we talk to Tom O'Mahony, the President of St. Patricks Athletic to discuss the plans for the new stadium complex in Inchicore and wonder what colour carpet will be in the upstairs bedrooms of the adjoining apartments. Limerick goalkeeper and Dublin 8 native Brendan Clarke gives us his 2 cents on the big news as well as secret records, goalkeeping howlers and eskimos in Oriel Park. There's a chat with Dundalk's Chris Shields, Ronan Finn on this weeks derby, an overtly ageist debate and who, if anyone, will think of the children? It's a bumper LOI weekly...and it's early!

This week sees Dan back from New York City to join forces with the two Johnnys. Yes, LOI Weekly ‘Hall of Famer’, Johnny McDonnell returns to cast his well schooled eye over the youth setup, the league, and whether Architects can build football teams with PowerPoint! There’s strip searches in Bray, Munster Derbies with Waterford manager Alan Reynolds, predictions galore and we try not to mention Fairyhouse. It's episode 8 and its here!

'Holy Thursday Batman, it's episode 7!' Rising again this Easter season is Conor Clifford who discusses his ban for gambling offences, boxing, and his quest for a new club. A less than penitent, Lee Grace after switching from Galway to Rovers is in studio to talk Galway exoduses and life with Rovers. We have all our usual banter and predictions in a three part format that dies, is buried and rises again as an all round egg-cellent Easter show. (Sorry about that last bit!)

It’s time for the LOI Weekly Saint Patrick’s Day parade! Johnny welcomes current St. Patricks captain and guest of honour Ian Bermingham alongside Grand Marshall Paul Doolin, former manager of Cork, UCD and Drogheda while Dan reports from the International parade in Turkey. Our guests discuss the recent Pats v Rovers game, as well as bouncers, ex girlfriend's weddings, the Irish abroad, just how good the league is, steak dinners and there's more fervent national pride than Cheltenham and that rugby crowd combined. It’s LOI Weekly for the week that was in it.