ANOTHER club is evicted from the league, an unseemly make it up as we go along process ensues to replace them and a new Premier Division campaign starts on the worst weekend imaginable, with the Republic of Ireland playing in Liechtenstein. But the only missives emanating from Merrion Square concern jobs for the boys.
Meantime, no doubt, the conservative forces are manoeuvring into position for the monthly debating at council level which will ultimately ratify the Ray Cass Report or brush it under the carpet.
Cass, it will be recalled, is the management consultant who was brought in to conduct a wide ranging investigation into the FAI's outmoded structures in light of the self inflicted damage last season.
By no means revolutionary, it proposes a more streamlined, modernistic structure for the FAI/National league without threatening to make the association's tailor redundant with a drastic reduction in new blazers, although it will reduce the number of committees various administrators can serve on.
If the report is ratified, it will provide a full time administrator/marketing director, as well as a revamped 10 man committee, with sole responsibility for the National League. About 30 years too late, but better late than never.
We also await the outcome of the National League's working body which was set up at last summer's a.g.m. to decide the best formula for the league to take into the next century and thereby begin to atone for the stagnation of the National League.
If it also reaffirms the view of Dublin's Big Four, whereby the standard of stadiums must be taken into account when gaining promotion into a reduced Premier Division, then there is a chance that one day soon we might have a league that can he successfully marketed.
Somehow, almost miraculously (especially bearing in mind declining refereeing standards likely to be exacerbated by Pat Kelly's retirement), the league thrives on the pitch and in some cases off it. Even those who take a cursory glance at our league accept that playing standards have improved discernibly in the last few years.
This can he largely attributed to the return of such prodigal sons as Tony Sheridan, Eddie Gormley, Brian Mooney and others still in their prime. This in turn can be attributed to the sounder financial health of certain clubs.
As in Gaelic football last season, the Dubs put it up to the rest of the country, although there is no sign of a sudden dramatic slump in the fortunes of St Patrick's, Bohemians and Shelbourne who, with the assistance of Shamrock Rovers, UCD, Home Farm, and with due respect to their Wicklow credentials, Bray Wanderers, are again likely to ensure a lopsided top tier.
