WHY LEAGUE OF IRELAND STARS LIKE DARRAGH MARKEY ARE A DYING BREED

DARRAGH MARKEY WOULD have made it home to Lucan in County Dublin after training with Drogheda United by around 8.45 last night.

But his working day started more than 12 hours before that.

Now a League of Ireland veteran in his ninth campaign, the Dubliner works in the accounts department of a construction company based in Tallaght. It’s the long-term career he envisages having earned a finance degree from Maynooth University while on a scholarship during his formative years at St Patrick’s Athletic.

He faces his old club this evening and it’s been another “helter skelter” week for a creative midfielder who turns 27 later this month.

“It’s not too bad from where I live, I’m in the office in about 15 or 20 minutes,” Markey says.

But the days are long.

Yesterday he was in the office by 8.30am and able to get out the door a little before 3.30pm. That is when he takes a call from The 42.

By 4pm he was at a meeting point just off the N4 at Lucan to meet teammates Dave Webster, Conor Kane and Warren Davis. “It’s ideal having four of us sharing the driving now, and the petrol money,” Markey says.

The pre-hab work before training begins at 5.30pm, there will be some final video analysis and the players are on the pitch by 5.45pm.

“It doesn’t feel as long at this time of year, it’s in the winter months, pre-season in January and February when you’re leaving the house in the morning and it’s dark, you come home at night and it’s dark. It’s raining out. They’re the toughest days but it never feels like a slog, all in all I’m happy,” he says.

“I get in and I’m tired but I feel good, I feel like it’s productive putting my degree to good use and getting to play football. It makes it worthwhile.”

These are the experiences of a League of Ireland star that feels like a dying breed.

Despite the recent takeover of Drogheda by American sports investment fund Trivela Group, Kevin Doherty’s side have retained a hybrid full/part-time set-up. They are the only club in the Premier Division not operating on a traditional full-time basis of morning training sessions.

“I think it’s mostly to accommodate lads who are still working,” Markey says.

“The plan is to go full-time and that’s the goal for the club. The league has changed massively so it needs to do that 100 per cent to be able to challenge other clubs and not fall behind.

“The longer it goes, with more teams going full time, the harder it will be. We still train as much as full-time sides and put the work in but there are other demands on us too.”

Markey has been used to that for the duration of his career, making his debut in the league with St Pat’s as a 17-year-old while also juggling his early college years.

He left Inchicore in 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and all of a sudden it seems as though he has broken into a different category of player.

“I did want to get that ‘young fella’ tag off my back,” he says. “It got to the stage where I was 24 and still had that label but now I feel like I’m properly established and that was my goal.

“It’s been nearly 10 years, and that’s madness. It’s flown by. Even those days in Maynooth, it’s been constantly juggling but I’m at the point now where I’m not a young player anymore and I’m in my peak years. I feel like I’m around for ages and have had a long career but I’m ready to do more and have more responsibility.”

The immediate demands will be for Drogheda – currently second bottom – to retain their top-flight status.

Such is the condensed nature of the division, though, they’re also just five points off fifth place Bohemians as they prepare to face St Pat’s tonight and a Louth derby with bottom club Dundalk on Monday.

“It’s crazy, get some quick wins together and you don’t know where you would end up. Right now everyone is beating each other and then we’re into the mid-season break before you know it.”

That will bring some respite from the hectic schedule on and off the pitch, a trip to Dubrovnik planned with his girlfriend.

“It’s gas, that first morning of the break Dublin airport is jammed with League of Ireland players heading away, they’re all together. It’s part of the madness of the league,” Markey says.

After all these years he’s well used to that by now.

2024-05-03T05:10:19Z dg43tfdfdgfd