Ronald McDonald, rising stars and returning heroes - so long to preseason

This time next week, it will all be over for another season and the magic of pre-season packed away until 2023.

The most sought after secret in the modern world, AKA Finn Harps squad for 2022, will be revealed before the week is out - putting to bed all tweets about wrestlers, cartoon characters and fast food outlets. 

With the opening up of society, full crowds will be allowed to return to all League of Ireland stadia for an extending period for the first time since March 2020 - a few weeks after a crowd of over 7,000 at current league champions Shamrock Rovers witnessed the gravity defying Jordan Flores strike which traversed the world on social media.

Since then he's played Europa League Group Stages, won an FAI Cup, played in England and is now back in Dublin for 2022.

Behind doors friendlies in the AUL and Abbottstown will have concluded and the Trialist families will disappear for another while. This season we actually saw three different relations - Trialists 1,2,3 and their cousins the ABCs as well as Trialach players courtesy of Galway United in a friendly sponsored by Foras na Gaeilge. 

These pre-season teamsheets are a law unto themselves - some clubs list the aforementioned Trialists, others apply pseudonyms (Finn Harps for example) while at a recent Derry City friendly the trialists for both sides were named but the teamsheets were kept under wraps.

Another anomaly from this is the presence of players trialling at different clubs - a few seasons ago Eric Molloy played twice against Chelsea in summer friendlies (for Bohs and Pat's respectively) while this month striker Louis Britton scored for Derry City against Drogheda before netting against the Candystripes for Waterford a week or so later. He has since officially signed on loan for the Blues from Bristol City.

Pre-season also allows multiple youth players the chance to showcase their talents in the hope of being part of the senior squad for the regular season. Ahead of the 2021 season Johnny Kenny scored four goals in three friendlies across February and March to spearhead his challenge to break into the Sligo Rovers first team.

Twelve months later he's playing for Glasgow Celtic. This weekend, Cillian Heaney made his first start for the club and scored twice - who knows what 2022 will bring for him? 

To replace Kenny, during pre-season Rovers signed a forward with international caps for Canada to add to the multicultural nature of the signings which took place during pre-season 2022.

As an example, staying in the west, Finn Harps have announced players from countries such as Croatia, Madagascar, France and Turkey while Galway United have two Spanish players with experience in European club competition and Sligo themselves have a New Zealander on loan from a Portuguese club.

The latter signing a potential replacement for homegrown John Mahon who left for St Johnstone in Scotland.

The return of former fan favourites following spells away has also been a trend during this pre-season - midfield schemer and Republic of Ireland international Jack Byrne pitched back up at Shamrock Rovers, while their Dublin rivals Bohemians are celebrating the return of Canadian wideman Kris Twardek.

Stevie O'Donnell, Robbie Benson and John Mountney headed up the M1 to Dundalk once more, Michael Duffy and Patrick McEleney returned to Derry City colours, Kevin O'Connor signed for Cork City for the fourth time, Aaron Dobbs returned to Ferrycarrig Park and the iconic Hugh Douglas signed for Bray Wanderers amongst the most high profile of these switches which saw the rekindling of relationships between players and their ex clubs.

Pre-season may not be a favourite of many (players and fans alike) but once the first games kick off next Friday night and it's consigned to history for another twelve months, there are still a few things we'll miss nonetheless - dodgy teamsheets, potential academy prodigies and announcements of exotic signings and returning heroes among them.

Coach Education from the McCaffrey Foundation https://t.co/44zv3JMjZGpic.twitter.com/uEXHCPCx4l

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) February 13, 2022