It only took one line from Declan Devine's statement last autumn to understand the impact he expected Keith Buckley to bring upon his return to the Bohemians captaincy for this season and beyond.
After a year away far from these shores in Australia, it was confirmed last October that the midfielder was coming back to Dalymount Park on a three-year contract starting this coming campaign, and immediately assuming the on-field leadership at a club that found itself cast adrift in midtable during a transitional 2022.
"I need people alongside me who really care about this club and who understand what Bohemian Football Club is about," were the words incoming manager Devine accompanied in his eulogising of Buckley who he went on to describe "as part of the past, now the present and also the future". Not surprising when he has spent 11 of the last 13 years at Bohs.
So the affable 30-year-old is going to be a busy man and that was clear as he spoke to RTÉ Sport at the launch of the 2023 League of Ireland season at Dublin's City Hall.
Technically speaking it was an interview conducted all along the length of the Big Smoke's Dame Street from the steps of City Hall all the way to College Green as Buckley needed to rush towards his next port of call.
The last year and a bit is a case of there and back again. He's already had quite a journey to and fro before the big kick off which sees Bohemians kick off their new season at newly promoted Cork City on Friday live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Having captained Bohs to a spot in the 2021 FAI Cup final, only to suffer a penalty shootout defeat, Buckley left for the vast expanse that is Australia.
"It was open-ended to be fair," he said as he reflected on that decision to head Down Under.
"But when I realised it had been for a year and stuff and did a lot of travelling, I got it out of my system. I needed to get back into this competitiveness and that's what I missed... the training and games of importance, you know?"
Buckley, whose only other year outside the Bohs stable since he first broke into League of Ireland football was a season at Bray Wanderers in 2017, was largely based in Sydney and kept himself busy playing part-time and coaching school-age players between travelling across as much of Oz as he could get to.
"The only place I didn't see would have been Perth," he said.
"Going from Sydney to Cairns was like a five-hour flight. It's crazy to think how big the actual place is."
After all that, it's "good to be back" and it was Devine, appointed successor to former long-time manager Keith Long towards the end of last season, who got in touch to confirm Buckley's interest in a return to Bohs.
"I'd been keeping an eye out and saw Declan was announced (as manager) and I'd be good pals with Derek Pender and I just let him know that I was thinking of heading back and Declan got a wind of it and called me straight away," he recalled.
"We had a brief chat at first and then had another chat afterwards and that's how it all came about. I was listening to Declan about what his plans are and I was like, 'Yeah, let's do this.'"
The Bohemians team is unrecognisable from the one that Buckley departed at the end of 2021. Looking around the figures in the dressing room wouldn't require a long stint of 'you were there and you were there and you were there'.
Of the 20-player matchday squad for that year's cup final, only long-time goalkeeper James Talbot and Scottish winger Ali Coote are still there. Another familiar face is two-time Canada cap Kris Twardek who had been at Bohs in 2020 and then returned last season.
While high turnover might not be altogether unusual in the LOI, it makes the maintenance of a strong culture more challenging within a squad. But Buckley's return is a key component of reestablishing that as Devine immediately realised when taking the job.
'So many people overuse the word now'
But for Buckley it's more of an organic process by having key people in place demonstrating good standards rather than artificially browbeating it from above.
"It's a big thing, a massive thing that's been in the club the last eight-nine years. It's the dressing room stuff. When you get that right, it filters onto the pitch and people fight for each other more," he said.
"So many people overuse the word now and even clubs fighting for that culture want to create that culture and sometimes do want to force it on. But when you have a couple of lads there that know about the club and the importance of the club, they naturally create that culture and we see everybody pulling in the one way from the top to the bottom. It doesn't matter if you're there ten years or one year, you see everyone pulling the right way and there's only one way they're going and everyone has to pull along - and if they don't belong they're going to be out the door."
Buckley has been familiarising himself with the fresh faces at the club over the past five or six weeks but adds that there is "a good feeling to it at the minute".
One familiar face from a past Bohs era who has returned is the club's former manager Pat Fenlon who is now director of football with a remit that stretches far beyond the men's first team.
"Pat actually gave me my debut so I'll always thank him for that. I'm very lucky at the time that he brought a lot of the young lads in and lucky enough I was there at the time," said Buckley, who emphasised that his own focus will solely be on the pitch rather than on the club's structures.
But he still finds time to keep tabs on some of the younger talent that have emerged from Bohemians and journeyed further afield.
Evan Ferguson is an obvious example as is Andy Lyons. But so are more recent departees to English League One like Dawson Devoy at MK Dons and Promise Omochere who has started finding the net for Fleetwood Town.
"I'm following (them). I couldn't see too much because of the time difference (in Australia) with the games but I've been trying to keep in touch and keep my eye over them," said Buckley.
"Of late, Promise has been doing well, Dawson's still playing in the team so obviously he's doing okay and again, they're two young boys so it's probably not even six months over there so they're still bedding their feet in. It'll be interesting after this year how they get on next year then with a good season underneath them."
A good season is what Bohemians are aiming for now starting with Turner's Cross on Friday and while the club has longer-term ambitions such as the Dalymount Park redevelopment, Buckley and his team-mates are keeping his focus on the here and now.
"We've to look now to the pitch for Friday because there's no point looking at (future) developments, you want to be doing your stuff on the pitch and pushing for them European spots so that you can get these good European nights. We've got to look after ourselves on the pitch, we can't look too far ahead because you fall short if that's the case."
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