Now officially presiding over a full-time outfit, Drogheda United manager Kevin Doherty cuts the same relaxed figure as ever.
In his navy tracksuit and white runners combo, he stretches out in his chair in the Mansion House, beneath a portrait of an 18th century nobleman, seemingly happy to take questions for as long as people will fire them at him.
The Drogs gaffer is not flanked by any highly-strung PR operative, barking out "last question" and "okay, wrap it up now".
At one stage, the Dublin Lord Mayor's dog briefly interrupts the interview. Doherty reflexively reaches down to pet the dog while continuing his monologue on the vagaries of the transfer market. As the dog scurries off, he glances up at the media members present and observes, "Bit random, innit?"
In 2025, Drogheda United, the reigning FAI Cup champions, are embarking on a glorious new era. One of morning training sessions and players no longer rocking up to their Ratoath facility after a day's work.
Acquired by US investment firm, Trivela Group, in late 2023, they completed their transition into a full-time outfit over the pre-season, making the 2025 Premier Division season the first in history in which all competing sides will be fully professional.
The switch to full-time, combined with the carrot of European football offered by their FAI Cup win, has already made them a more attractive prospect for players hungry for game-time. And their agents.
"I'm not joking, I came in here today and I had about four or five messages from different agents, saying 'you need anything else for your squad?'" Doherty tells RTÉ Sport.
"It's every day. So even if you were the laziest and didn't look at any player ever and didn't do any work, you'd still be able to sign a squad because there's players being sent to you every minute of the day."
How do they decide on which players to pursue given that volume of correspondence with agents?
"This is another thing with Trivela. Myself and Matt Jordan, the VP of global football - is that what it's called? - would go on recruitment meetings every week.
"We have a football recruitment company that we work with as well.
"I could show you - I won't - I've an app on my phone that you just go in and you put any player into it and everything (about them) is filtered straight away.
"Again, this is what other football clubs have been doing for years. We've only really been doing it (lately).
"You physically can't look at them all (players). We've five centre forwards so someone could send us a centre forward and he could be the best centre forward... there's no point in me looking at him, we couldn't sign him. So you do need a filtering system."
"Even if you were the laziest and didn't look at any player ever and didn't do any work, you'd still be able to sign a squad because there's players being sent to you every minute of the day"
While they lost striker Frantz Pierrot to Bosnia in the off-season, alongside the retirements of old stalwarts Dave Webster, Adam Foley and Gary Deegan, Drogheda have recruited heavily over the winter while retaining the bulk of their first-team starters from the 2024 campaign.
George Cooper and Josh Thomas have arrived on loan from Mansfield Town and Swansea City respectively. From the First Division, they've signed Thomas Oluwa from Wexford and Kieran Cruise from Bray Wanderers.
Defender Conor Keeley returns to the club after a season at Richmond Park, while they've plucked midfielder Paul Doyle from their stricken neighbours Dundalk.
Crucially, the two loanees from sister club Walsall - also under Trivela's ownership - will remain in the newly named Sullivan and Lambe Park (formerly Weavers Park and formerly again plain old United Park) for the opening half of the 2025, though both Elicha Ahui and striker Douglas James-Taylor are currently carrying injuries.
"I certainly found that more agents and clubs were contacting us," Doherty says, reflecting on the off-season.
"Now obviously, say the likes of Kieran Cruise... that was us. An agent didn't contact us. We know what he's like.
"I'm using him as an example. There's countless others that you go and look for yourself and you'd have an idea of the player.
"Paul Doyle, for instance. I didn't need an agent (to tell me about him). I love him. I think he's just a player that really adds to what we do.
"It's a big thing for loan players in particular, they can be tempted over to get experience in Europe.
"For me, the big thing was the full-time switch. You actually had some of the biggest clubs in England contacting you about taking players on loan, young players.
"Now, none of them necessarily were what we were looking for at the time.
"That certainly wouldn't have happened last year. Because as much as we trained as much as anyone last year, there is a certain (attitude of) 'oh, they're only part-time, we're not going there'.
"So, it certainly helped with player recruitment."
Drogheda finished ninth last season - two spots lower than in 2023 - though rarely can a team who placed second bottom have concluded their campaign in such a buoyant mood.
The cup final win over Derry City - their second of all-time coming 19 years after the first - was only nominally an upset. Anyone who paid much attention to the trajectory of the two clubs in the weeks preceding wouldn't have been that surprised.
Their celebrations were slightly curtailed due to the pressing matter of the promotion/relegation playoff six days later, though they completed their business in Tallaght with a minimum of fuss, dispatching Bray Wanderers 3-1, the game essentially done and dusted before the hour mark.
"For me, Drogheda were one of the best teams in the country for the second half of the season. I didn't see a reason to be ripping it up. Particularly when lads were really, really keen to stay.
"The likes of Darragh Markey and Conor Kane were looking to go full-time. It's not just rest on your laurels and saying 'ah, sure that'll do us again'.
"I'm probably boring everyone but we need to make sure that we're as competitive or even more competitive than last year.
"Other lads were asking me what are our expectations. You just have to try and be better.
"We were delighted to finish ninth in the end because of where we were halfway through the season.
"It got to the stage in the second half of the season last year where we were going into games expecting to win. We have to get into that mentality.
"There won't be a cup hangover because it's a completely new group. I don't even talk about the Cup anymore - obviously I do here when people are asking me about it - because half the dressing room didn't win the Cup. You have to move on and get ready for next year."
The upcoming season will be different in other ways. For the first time since their heady days in the late 2000s, Drogheda will be the only Louth representative in the top flight.
Dundalk's annus horribilis in 2024 essentially took automatic relegation out of the equation for Drogheda in the latter stages of last season, even had their form had not been as robust.
By the end of the season, relegaton became the least of Dundalk's worries amid frantic efforts to ensure they remained a going concern at all.
With their traditionally more successful county rivals going through a historic crisis, it was suggested that Shelbourne might be the closest they'll get a derby game this season.
"The league champions? Well... maybe, yeah.
"(After thinking) I suppose they're the closest yeah. I never even thought of it like that."
Doherty himself has a long history with Shels, having won three league titles in the club's glory years in the first half of the 2000s, and then cut his teeth as a manager during their long spell in second-tier wilderness in the early-to-mid 2010s.
"We have had a fair few ding dongs with them over the years. What, did we draw with them three times last year?
"They had unbelievable success last year. And we did too.
"Shels are the one for me. The two games I loved the most were the Dundalk and Shels game. And we don't have the Dundalk one now."
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