ARE Shamrock Rovers and Cork City in some way twinned? Why do they travel in harness so often? Inseparable as the top clubs in the country in 1994, they have steadily declined since Cork more exaggeratedly so off the pitch. Now, within a matter of 24 hours, come the latest twists in their dual tale which sees Rovers manager less and Cork owner less. How did it come to such a sorry state?

In Cork's case it gives me little comfort to say I've been predicting it for some time. A modest seasonal forecast of ninth was based on the premise that "a well meaning board cut too many corners for their own good". It looks, predictably, like they've cut one too many.

In Rovers' case there has rarely been any middle ground under Ray Treacy, invariably verging from the unbeatable to the unable to beat anybody with little or nothing in between. Views of him are equally polarised.

His detractors maintain he is aloof, arrogant and loud and they're the good things. He played the character to the hilt never shirking his beliefs about the game's administration, or the way it should be played.

Here he was as good as his word even when stuck in losing ruts Rovers stuck to Treacy's passing beliefs. Which may explain why they stayed in them for so long, and emerged from them so spectacularly. He could never really explain it himself, but the dividing line between a winning side and a losing one was always finer with Treacy's Rovers.

Accused of over passing the ball and playing too much in front of the opposition, Rovers flirted with relegation to such an extent in his first season, 1992-93, that they needed a point away to Waterford in their penultimate game to ensure their survival. Ridiculous really.

Treacy maintained they weren't that far away, and with a couple of adjustments to his avowed youth policy (Terry Eviston and Alan O'Neill joining along with Paul Osam and Alan Byrne) he was proved right.

Rovers launched their 1993-94 title bid with winning runs of five and seven games, at one point taking 36 out of 42 points, with a vibrant attacking game which refuted the notion that young part time National League Footballers couldn't pass the ball.

For years, wherever Mick Neville, John Coady, Paul Doolin and Pat Byrne went with Jim McLaughlin (or else Turlough O'Connor and his crew), the title went with them. Like Brian Kerr's St Patrick's in 1990.

Treacy's Rovers bucked the trend.

Even then they stumbled by losing four games on the trot before rallying to win six on the spin. Typical. The table told no lies at the end of that season but the fizz hadn't gone out of the champagne before rumours circulated that Alan Byrne and Stephen Geoghegan were jumping ship to Shelbourne.

If Treacy did make a mistake it was in not signing them to more than one year contracts, but he maintained it was best to see what their loyalty was made of. Capable of the most caustic one liner put downs, his relationships with players have not always been the most harmonious, but that whole episode embittered him far more than he ever let on.

Had Geoghegan remained last season I'm convinced Rovers may well have retained their title.

Treacy has never adequately replaced Geoghegan since, despite a string of attempts Karl Gannon, John Bacon, Ed Green, John Brennan, Mark Reid, Sean Francis and Padraig Dully all forming partnerships or acting as partners to a fading Eviston, with Derek Tracey and Derek McGrath also tried up front.

Though a superb judge of a footballer (nobody else was even interested in Stephen Geoghegan three years ago), posterity may not reflect well on Treacy's latter dealings in the transfer market. In midfield, also, a shamelessly unfit Kenny O'Rourke let him down, as did another non 90 minute man, Rod de Khors, all the while duplicating John Toal and unbalancing the team.

Though also a supreme tactician, Treacy seemed to over react to defeats, chopping and changing selections which became increasingly puzzling, at least to this observer. Against Shelbourne he had a midfielder (Derek Tracey) at right full a right fall (Gareth Kelly) at left fall and another right footer (Derek McGrath) on the left of midfield.

But all that's as maybe. As Johnny Giles says, the game's about goals. Had Dolly converted any of three one on ones with Shelbourne goalkeeper Alan Gough on New Year's Day, who knows how that game and those that followed might have turned out.

Perhaps though, deep down, Treacy had lost his enthusiasm for it. If so, hardly surprising given the motivation to do it all over again after the break up of his 1994 title winning side must have waned. All the more so given his ever intensifying workload, which recently forced him to open up a new office above his travel agency. His monthly itinerary was exhausting just to read.

If only he could have devoted his considerable powers and energies full time to Rovers? I'm sure he would have preferred it, but he wasn't that much of a romantic. Today's departure confirms he was right.

I'm still not 100 per cent sure it's the right course of action for man or club, even if the discontented have no doubts. But then they never knew how good, they had it. The travel agent/tv international analyst gave the domestic game a bit of a Ron Atkinson swagger and, similarly, Treacy's Rovers were always good to watch.

It'll be duller without him.