When the SSE Airtricity League First Division kicks off on Friday there will be one obvious change.
It's bye-bye to bye weeks as the second tier of the League of Ireland returns to being an even-numbered, 10-team division, having been restricted to nine clubs for a season due to the merger of Bray Wanderers and Cabinteely.
As former Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers said on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast in February of last year, "The most disappointing fact about the First Division is the fact that it is nine teams.
"A bye week in senior professional football is just not a really good look to be honest.
"I think that if we have aspirations to have a third tier in League of Ireland football and we can't fill a second tier at the minute, it's just not good."
While an LOI third tier remains on the long finger for now, the identity of the team taking the 10th slot in the First Division brings plenty of intrigue for the season ahead and a welcome sense of geographic growth for the game.
For the very first time, the Kingdom will have a representative in one of the top two tiers of Irish football, as this Friday, Kerry will make their debut when they welcome Cobh Ramblers to Tralee's Mounthawk Park for the opening game of the season.
It was a long time coming to get to this point of bringing senior League of Ireland football to the hometown and county of the club's manager and sporting director Billy Dennehy.
"Obviously it's the first time being in the league as a club and we're probably going into the unknown a little bit but League of Ireland football has been a lifetime coming to Kerry to be honest and it's great that it's finally here," the former Shamrock Rovers, Cork City, St Patrick's Athletic and Sunderland player said at the launch of the 2023 LOI season at Dublin's City Hall.
The county had already been represented in the national underage leagues but Dennehy views the new first-team as "the final piece of the jigsaw".
Given it will be Kerry's first experience at league level against more established clubs, Dennehy is keen not to put any onerous expectations on the players in the short-term.
The squad has been taking shape with the core of it made up of youngsters who have emerged from their own underage ranks and the Kerry District League, with that local flavour a key strategy.
"People from the outside recognise the model that we're doing here. We've obviously mentioned it but we're trying to build a sustainable club from a good solid foundation first," said Dennehy.
"That obviously means recruiting good local players and people involved in the club and we're hoping to develop within the club as well and provide a platform for local lads to go on and play a lot higher level than here too."
Providing educational outlets, including pathways towards US college scholarships, has also been part of the process.
"The educational side of the club is going to be big and I'm keen on that just because of having been a player myself," said Dennehy.
"Sometimes the education side of a person isn't really looked at when you're a footballer. It's just what can you do on a Friday night or a match night. But within this club I want to have a holistic view of the person as well as the player, so the person has avenues within the club in terms of education and in terms of opportunities outside the sport and that's something that's only going to grow over time.
"We've a relationship with the university in Kerry now where we've got many lads on full scholarships to the university and obviously with the partnership with the Boston Bolts in the US, there's going to be a chance for players to go over there as well for scholarships and vice versa."
Along with the youthful core, there's a sprinkling of experienced arrivals like Matt Keane, who returns to his home county after a spell at Limerick's Treaty United, and Boston native Alexander Ainscough, the son of Brian Ainscough, the Dublin-born CEO of both Kerry and the USL's Boston Bolts.
For Keane, who hails from just outside Killarney, it was a "no brainer" to take up the opportunity to play League of Ireland football closer to home.
"For the last two years, I was travelling up and down to Treaty and when I was underage I would've been (travelling to and from) Limerick to play at youth level, so the fact that we have this now, this avenue for young players to have a pathway to go from Under-14 all the way up to senior First Division standard is absolutely massive and it's only going to grow soccer in the region," said the 26-year-old, who added that he can already feel the brewing interest locally.
"There's massive excitement around Kerry. Every time you go out, when you meet someone on the street, they're asking questions, 'how is the training going?', 'what's the team like, have you got your squad signed up?'.
"When I'm at work - I'm teaching as well - all the students, are massively excited and saying, 'Sir, we can't wait to go to our first game'. The excitement there is absolutely massive.
"When Kerry got the licence, it seemed like the first game was going to be a long way, away but it's come round rapidly and the excitement is massive and everyone in Kerry is talking about it."
In the long-term, building a support base in a county that is synonymous with Gaelic football will be part of the remit, albeit one look at the career of four-time All-Ireland winner Kieran Donaghy shows that other sports - basketball in his case - have long co-existed harmoniously with the king or queen of the castle.
"With the GAA, obviously we're all proud to be from Kerry and supporting Kerry no matter what sport it's in," said Dennehy.
"We're proud to support the Kerry GAA teams when they're playing. Just in our sport, in soccer, there's never been that pathway through to the senior teams.
"So obviously as a young player, where was the progression after 19? There wasn't until now so now players coming into the club at 14 or 15, now they have a choice.
"They can go on and play senior First Division football which could lead to other opportunities and that's just good for the county as a whole because it's a big sporting county and people will support no matter what sport it is. Now thankfully they have a soccer club to support as well."
Dennehy is also conscious of the fact that Kerry holds symbolic power when it comes to encouraging aspiring clubs in other counties that don't have or have never had League of Ireland teams.
'It's been very difficult to even get to this stage'
But he admits that it is not an easy process to get to where his club has got to. Kerry's application for the club licensing process had been lodged last June, before approval for the 2023 season was granted five months later.
"I have to say it's been very difficult to even get to this stage," he said.
"The licensing process and the pieces of the jigsaw had to come together to even apply for the licensing process. There was a lot of work involved.
"A lot of people behind the scenes had to put in a lot of effort in relation to making it happen. So I've no illusion that if anybody is thinking of doing it, that it's very challenging.
"But it prepares you for what's ahead in a lot of ways as well so it kind of irons out a lot of the issues you might face down the road that you can get sorted within the club environment itself, just the board and the structure of the club.
"So I think that's definitely helped us for how we're working day to day now."
