The quality of play in the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division is a cause for some concern, according to Alan Cawley.
While attendances and interest in the League of Ireland have clearly grown in recent years, the former league winner with Shelbourne feels the on-pitch product needs to follow suit.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Cawley, who was at Tolka Park for Friday's chaotic seven-goal battle between Shels and Drogheda United, outlined his misgivings about playing standards this season.
"I'm concerned about the league, the overall standard, where it's at," he said as he and Richie Towell reviewed last Friday's action.
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"I've seen some poor displays, poor games. You look at the teams at the moment, some of them struggling.
"You want games to be of a high standard as well. Of course, there is the interest that's there, the hype is there.
"But we have to back it up with quality as well in games and you don't want to get to a situation where there is all the crowd interest, there's the interest from outside the media interest, the league is on a sound footing, you're trying to improve it but the quality isn't there.
"So we need to keep the quality high and if you only have one or two teams that are producing that - and that's all I see at the moment is one or two producing that - it's a little bit concerning."
A lack of technical quality was one factor behind it, he added.
"That's the reality of it and it disappoints me and I don't say that in a kind of disrespectful way," the Sligo native said.
"I'm delighted when Richie said to me the first half (between St Patrick's Athletic and Bohemians) was absolutely brilliant.
"That's what you want. Shamrock Rovers against Bohemians last week was a brilliant game of football.
"But you can't have just one good game every few weeks. We need to see it across the board, some sort of a standard where we're hitting a good metric every week with three, four or five teams - not just with one game every week."
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