As Joey O'Brien gets ready to pit his wits against Oliver Glasner at Tallaght Stadium tonight, it's almost easy to forget that the Shelbourne head coach is in his infancy as a manager.
Tonight's Conference League fixture against Crystal Palace will only be his 27th game in charge since making the sudden step up from his role as assistant to his good friend Damien Duff in July.
And even though overseeing largely impressive performances during the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division run-in and in Europe since the summer can be classed as the most valuable practical lessons imaginable, technically speaking he is still in school.
In September, he was one of the 14 coaches included on the FAI's UFA Pro Licence course for 2025-26, alongside the likes of fellow former Republic of Ireland internationals Conor Hourihane and Stephen Elliott, who themselves are in charge of Barnsley and Wexford respectively.
Speaking on Wednesday at Shelbournet's press conference ahead of Crystal Palace's visit to a sold-out Tallaght Stadium, O'Brien shared an update on how the course work has been going so far.
"I've only had one block. So here it is and it's just one of the things that you want to take part in those coaching courses," he told RTÉ Sport.
"For me, when I came back home from England, I wanted to do them in the FAI. I was lucky enough to play for the international team, so I felt that was something I wanted to do through our own association.
"So I've been lucky that I've been able to do all the licences up to the Pro Licence and now I'm on the Pro Licence in the FAI, which means something to me."
Not that he needs any inspiration but if O'Brien looks across his technical area tonight at the Crystal Palace dugout, a relatively recent graduate of the FAI's Pro Licence course will be sitting alongside Eagles boss Glasner.
Paddy McCarthy, who was capped for Ireland at every level from Under-17s to the 21s and earned a senior call-up in 2009, has been a key part of the Palace coaching set-up.
After ending his playing career at the club, the Dubliner initially coached in their underage set-up but within the last two-and-a-half years, the former defender was twice - briefly - entrusted with the role of senior caretaker manager following the sackings of Patrick Vieira and Roy Hodgson.
And since the south London club's current boss Glasner has been in situ for what has been a successful period, McCarthy has been a key lieutenant as one of the assistant managers.
Alongside that club commitment, McCarthy has also been part of the Ireland senior set-up, first during John O'Shea's four-game spell as interim manager and subsquently forming part of Heimir Hallgrimsson's current backroom team along with O'Shea as they continue to try and plot a path towards next year's World Cup.
O'Brien was able to call him a team-mate just once, their paths briefly crossing in June 2005 when they were both part of an Ireland Under-21 squad for a European qualifier against Israel.
McCarthy started that 2-2 draw with O'Brien, who is three years his junior, entering the fray for the final 17 minutes.
O'Brien's own memories of that match are hazy but one thing is clear, an enduring respect from afar for his fellow Dub.
"He would have been a couple of years older than me," O'Brien recalled.
"He went to Man City so I would have known lads that were a couple of years younger than Paddy. But getting to know him in them squads, he was a great lad. He's gone on to do great things now in his coaching career."
And needless to say, the respect carries over towards Crystal Palace as a whole given the reigning FA Cup winners' trajectory which has taken them to fourth in the Premier League ahead of this weekend.
"How they play never really changes," O'Brien said.
"They're a super side. You can see how well coached they are, how drilled they are, really good players. But for me, they haven't really changed too much. So the European teams that they've started with really is near enough what they started in the Premier League. So we just have to prepare for that really and take it as it comes (tonight)."
