Shamrock Rovers poster boy Jack Byrne feels he hasn’t lived up to his billing of late but Bohemians is perfect stage
THERE are posters in the Shamrock Rovers Transition Year classroom of various first-team players that highlight their individual characteristics.
The one of Jack Byrne outlines what makes him Jack Byrne to the Hoops’ academy hopefuls.
Byrne is unsure about the statement that he is quick over 20 metres, though he likes the notes about his mentality, which say he is a great team-mate, is coachable and has no ego.
It is why the credit he is getting — even from his manager Stephen Bradley — troubles him when Rovers’ results have been indifferent.
Byrne said: “I’m happy with my performances but still we’re not in the best position so I can’t be selfish in that way and say, ‘Well, look, I think I’m doing OK but obviously we’re not winning games’.
“You can always do more. I’d be my biggest critic. Although the stats are up, I still think if we’re not winning games . . .
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“I would take a lot of that on my shoulders myself.
"I feel if I’m at it, we should be winning games and certainly it gives us the best chance of winning games.”
He knows when he is at it and he knows when he is not.
Tonight, he hopes Bohemians see him closer to being at it, having felt he has not been there for the last few years.
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Byrne, 27, continued: “Last year, I was looking at some of the stats, assists and stuff, we were taking the chances but I knew myself I probably wasn’t playing as well.
“But I might have been setting a goal up and you might grab the headlines with that.”
He even goes back to 2020 and sees it as a year when he was not at his best — even though he played for Ireland and won Player of the Year as Rovers went unbeaten through the 18-game Covid-interrupted season.
Referring to a back issue, Byrne added: “I think I did well to hide it that year.
"I was in the last year of my contract, I had to play. It was one of those things, I had to kind of get on with it.
“It was probably niggling at me from March. I actually did it in the last game before lockdown, against Sligo.
"If you watch the video back, I took a shot and I actually feel my back.
“So I didn’t train during the lockdown, I only trained four or five days before the Finn Harps game, the first game back.
“Then a couple of injections and I went on. But I wasn’t fit, I was struggling.”
Still, he got a move to APOEL Nicosia, though he was soon forced to undergo surgery that put him out for a year before he returned to Rovers.
And his injuries meant last term was another season of frustration, even as the Hoops won a third title in a row and reached the Europa Conference League group stage.
He added: “I didn’t enjoy it, I maybe enjoyed the start of it up until I was battling with my performances.
“I didn’t feel as if I was playing well. I had moments in games, I’d say moments through the season, where I was doing OK but I was nowhere near where I thought I should have been.
“Especially playing in Europe. That was why I wanted to come back to the club, especially with the Conference League, I knew we had an opportunity to play European football.
“It just came at a stage where I just wasn’t physically myself really.
"I couldn’t really affect the game.
"I know my own performances over the years. I know when I’m at it and I know when I wasn’t at it.”
But after a full pre-season, and having been an ever-present in the campaign to date, Byrne believes he is getting closer to being at his best — even though Rovers needed seven games to get their first win.
STAGE IS SET
And he knows that tonight’s Dublin derby clash with early league leaders Bohemians is the type of stage where he can show everyone how close he is to being the real Jack Byrne again.
He added: “I actually really enjoy going down to Dalymount, I think it’s brilliant when we go down there and play.
“If we could bring 4,000 to Dalymount and they could bring 4,000 to Tallaght, they would.
"When I came back, I think the first game we had 2,500 at a Derry game and it was like, ‘This is a massive crowd’.
“The Bohs games, they only started to really get 4,000/5,000 when I came back in 2019.
"Maybe some of the lads here then weren’t used to playing in that type of situation.
“We used to do silly things in those games and go down to ten men.
“I remember we got two lads sent off in one game and the emotion in that game compared to other games was completely different because there was a big crowd and it was hostile.
“The last couple of years, probably since I’ve been here, it’s probably been their biggest game of the season and maybe to a certain extent ours as well.
“But for different reasons. It’s probably been their biggest game because they haven’t really been up and around the top of the league, so the derby game is obviously huge for them.
“Now that has changed, they’re top and we’re chasing them. So at the moment it is a big game for both clubs.”