Past Shamrock Rovers players talk about being a part of the team

Terry Palmer

(Player for seven seasons, 1998-2004, and supporter)

My family would have been big Rovers fans and my dad would have taken me to Milltown, so signing for them was a very big deal to me . . . they were the biggest club.

It was a difficult time, though. They used just about everywhere you can think of, including Cork once, for home games while I was there. But the real problem was the training. Sometimes, I’d pick a few lads up in the car and hit the M50 and only once I was on it would I give a call to see where we were supposed to go. Sometimes it would be a public park, where the first thing was to establish where the park was.

Tony Maguire

(Former board member and chairman for three years)

My first day as chairman I realised we didn’t have the money to pay the wages and had to come up with 10 grand. A builder gave it to me, he had agreed to do a bit of sponsorship over three years, but ended up handing over the money in one go. My last game in charge, I borrowed another 10 from the 400 Club to pay the players and told them I’d give it back to them from the gate receipts for a game against Longford. But after paying Bohs for the ground there was only €6,500 left. I had to borrow the balance from somebody else and ended up repaying that myself.

I’d say it cost me €70,000 personally and I took some dosing from the fans, because obviously things didn’t go to plan. But I’m still proud that, like a lot of other people, I made a contribution and, if I’m honest, I’d have to say that, tough as it was, I miss it now.

Derek Tracey

(Played “about 487 games” for the club over 17 years having joined in 1989. He will have a testimonial game on November 5th in Tallaght)

I had my chances to move on during my career but there was always something about playing for Rovers, and captaining the side for three years was the highlight of my career.

Getting relegated was the low, but I was there for the last title win in 1994 and played enough games to get a winner’s medal – even if they spelt my name wrong on it. It’s great to see them back up there, but it’s no coincidence that when we won it back then we had the RDS as a bit of a base, and now they’re on the verge of doing I again with Tallaght as their home. You need that.

Liam Buckley

(Had two stints with the club as a player and one as manager. Member of the 1983/’84 league-winning side).

When I finished up (as manager in 2004), the money had run out and there was no real plan as to how to keep the club on the road. I left, and it seemed like the players were leaving, the board was leaving and all that was going to be left really was the supporters.

It’s a testimony to the work they’ve done since that Rovers are back where they are. It’s probably only now, when I’m really involved in running a club myself, that I fully appreciate all the work that goes in, all the time you spend in meetings behind the scenes in order to get anything done.

Those lads certainly put the work in and they inherited nothing – apart from a great brand, that is: in terms of Irish football there’s none better. They’ve restored it to the point where clubs like my own are aspiring to compete with it again.

– Emmet Malone