It was a case of out with the old and in with the new as Heimir Hallgrimsson named his squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations League double header.
The national team are heading on a whistle-stop tour of the European periphery as they travel first to Finland before heading south to renew rivalries with Greece.
And while it is only the second squad that the new manager has named, Hallgrimsson appears to be putting his mark on the side as he rang the changes following the double defeat to England and Greece in September.
With Seamus Coleman already ruled out through injury, there was no place for the experienced trio of Wolves defender Matt Doherty, Sunderland midfielder Alan Browne or Cardiff City forward Callum Robinson.
Luton Town centre-half Mark McGuinness comes into the 24-man unit, while ball-playing midfielder Jack Taylor from Ipswich is also included. Finn Azaz has also been rewarded for his club form with Hallgrimsson stating that the Middlesbrough man has been "impressive" in his midfield role in recent weeks.
In what was a refreshing change from the norm, the manager began today's press conference in Abbotstown with a squad update where he offered reasons for those who have been included as well as honestly addressing the players who were not included.
"Starting with players that were maybe not in the squad in the last camp, starting with Festy, who came in at a day's notice. It was good to have him in," said Hallgrimsson.
"And then Mikey Johnston has been struggling with an orbital bone fracture, so he's come back, getting his minutes now. We're happy to have him back.
"The same with Josh Cullen, back in the squad after a hamstring injury. I think he has played two, three matches, so he's up and running. Jamie McGrath as well was close to being in our last squad. He's started the season really well at Aberdeen, creating, scoring, man of the match performances, et cetera.
"Finn Azaz is another one who has been playing well for Middlesbrough – I saw him last week when they played Stoke – impressive, and again the day before yesterday, he had a good performance against West Brom, so a guy I think can step up and show his strength for us.
"Then maybe the more surprising, Mark McGuinness, centre-back at Luton. He has been playing really well this season, aerially dominant and really a set-piece threat and also a good range of passing, and he's been really impressive for Luton.
"And then Jack Taylor as well, getting bigger and bigger roles at Ipswich, a good attacking midfielder, good on the ball, dribbling, running with it, just a quite good attacking player."
And while he was certainly not closing the door on those who missed out, he emphasised his need to give people their opportunity ahead of next year’s World Cup qualifying campaign.
"Of course when you have new players coming in, some need to step out, so from the last camp we are missing Will Smallbone and Seamus Coleman as well both injured, and then Callum [Robinson], Alan Browne, Jake O'Brien and Matt Doherty make way for the others to come in.
"That is the squad."
Matt Doherty’s omission is perhaps the most high-profile, especially with the fact that Coleman is also absent, which suggests that Hallgrimsson is looking for another option to cement their place in the squad.
The manager said that he has spoken to Doherty and while he was disappointed with his exclusion, Hallgrimsson implied that he may be called upon in the short term and what he was looking at in this window was a "Plan B" scenario.
"First of all, we know that Matt and Seamus have been here for a long time in the squad, our most-experienced full-backs, our best full-backs playing at the highest level for a long time," said Hallgrimsson.
"But unfortunately they will not play forever, so we need to have a Plan B if they are not there.
"My job is to get this team to the World Cup in the US in 2026 and given that next year, 2025, if we end up in a group with five nations, all our FIFA windows next year will be official World Cup matches, so this is the only chance to experiment, to give players a chance to show what they can do. That is the reason we opted to go for other players at this stage.
"I called Matt yesterday. Obviously, he deserves that. He was not happy, of course, he wants to play every game for Ireland. But I just assured him that it's not like we are leaving him out, we're just testing other players.
"Because of his experience as well, [we decided] not to bring him in to have him on the bench. It's better just to give him this camp off."
Tom Cannon was not expected to make it into this squad, based on the other attacking options available, however, the Stoke striker handed the manager a last-minute headache by scoring four midweek.
Hallgrimsson smiled when asked about leaving a player who had just scored four out of his squad, but added that Cannon was on standby should he need another striking option over the course of the two games.
"We had kind of selected the squad prior to the matches," said Hallgrimsson. "I don’t think we would have changed it but it is really nice, we are so happy for him to get the goals.
"Now he is starting to play on a regular basis, hopefully he will continue. It was nice to see an Irish player score four goals in one game but you could see in the game that he was really tired in the end so he is not fully match fit but hopefully he will continue scoring and he is in our back-up squad and if we need it, it is easy to call up a guy who scored four goals yesterday."
