John Caulfield wants Galway United to cause a shock this season, starting in how old Turner’s Cross stomping ground
JOHN Caulfield is the Cork City legend who is hoping to spoil their Premier Division homecoming party.
The Enniskeane native returns to Turner’s Cross on Friday night, but as Galway United manager he is plotting against his old club in this League of Ireland Premier Division opener.
‘It will be nice to go back and see the supporters who treated me so well, and they’ll know my own story with the club, but this is the first game of the new campaign and we want a result to get us off to the best possible start,’ Caulfield says.
He is a City legend – Caulfield made a record number of appearances for the club as a player (455), is their joint record scorer (129 goals) and was inducted into the City’s Hall of Fame. As manager (2013 to ’19), Caulfield led the club to the Premier Division title (2017) and two FAI Cups (2016 and ’17). Heady times. Great memories. But that emotional connection will be parked to one side this Friday night.
‘We want to pick up as many points as we can and every game is an opportunity to pick up points so we can be as far up the table as possible,’ Caulfield explains ahead of his latest return to Turner’s Cross.
He’s been back to City as Galway boss already, in the 2021 and ’22 seasons, even winning on his old stomping ground in ’22, but the clubs haven’t met since then. When Caulfield masterminded Galway United’s promotion from the First Division in 2023, they passed his old club out on the way up as City were relegated from the Premier in the same year. Now they’ll share the same air in the top tier for the first time since Caulfield took over the reins in Galway.
‘It’s going to be a full house at the Cross, and a great atmosphere, and we’ll bring 500 supporters with us on Friday night,’ he says.
‘Our traveling attendance has gone from about 80 to 400, and we had an average attendance of 4,000 last season so that shows you the interest that is being generated up here in Galway.’
John Caulfield led Cork City to the 2016 FAI Cup title.While Caulfield swapped West Cork for the west of Ireland when he took over as Galway United manager in late 2020, home still is Enniskeane. While he is based in Galway for most of the week – remember, Galway United are a full-time League of Ireland team – he gets home as much as he can. On the weekends he can’t, his wife Grainne makes the trip to Galway.
‘The only day I have off is a Tuesday. We train early on Monday so I’ll head down home around lunch time, then we’re off on Tuesday, and we have a double session on Wednesday afternoon so I’m not on the road until around 10am,’ he explains.
‘Sometimes I might head home after a match on a Friday night, depending where it’s on, but you’re not home until around 2am, and then you’re back in Galway for Sunday.
‘You couldn’t do this if you had a young family, but we’re at a stage in our life where we have that little bit more freedom now.’
This weekend’s game away to Cork City means Caulfield will be back home in Enniskeane at a reasonable time on Friday night. He’ll spend Saturday at home before pointing his car towards Galway on Sunday. In some ways, there’s a similarity between West Cork and Galway in terms of the people and the characters; there’s a genuineness to the locals. Caulfield agrees, broadening it to take in Cork city too.
‘I see those similarities in a sporting sense, too,’ he explains.
‘Whereas Cork has Munster rugby, Galway has Connacht rugby. Galway are strong in hurling, strong in football and they have a soccer team. It reminds me of when I was in Cork. Soccer is very strong in Galway city, and hurling is strong east of the city, and football is strong out towards Tuam, (Padraic) Joyce’s area, and out to Connemara. You have rugby too, and Connacht play in the city so it’s strong here.’
Caulfield had no connection to Galway before he took over as manager in 2020, but it’s now his home away from home.
‘It would be great to bring success to the people here. When the call came from Galway it was out of the blue, but once I met them, you get to know the good people involved and realise the potential of the club and what success would mean to them,’ he says, with Galway’s First Division triumph in 2023 the highlight; it marked their return to the top flight for the first time since 2017.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, as Caufield came under pressure when Galway missed out on promotion through the play-offs in 2022. But under his watch Galway were back in the Premier Division last season and defied the odds to finish fifth, just 11 points behind champions Shelbourne. They flew under the radar for long parts of last season, and Caulfield hopes the spotlight will stay fixated on the capital.
‘When you are in the west of Ireland, you’re almost forgotten about,’ he muses.
‘When I was at Cork City, media-wise and call-wise it was every day, but bar the local media here like the Connacht Tribune, I might go a few weeks without a call now! I’m not complaining though!
‘When we came up last year the talk was we’d be in the relegation fight, but there was a spell with four or five games to go when we had an outside chance of European football.
‘I was at the launch of the new league season last week and people were asking if I think we can avoid relegation so straightaway people are putting us in that bracket. I think we are better than that, and the challenge for our team is that we came out of the First Division in 2023, did reasonably well last year, so can we kick on now having had the experience of a year in the Premier Division? We want to kick on and be better again. We are capable of giving everyone a game.’
The Premier Division was incredibly open last season – eventual champs Shels won less than half of their league games (17 out of 36). Caulfield predicts more of the same.
‘What you are guaranteed is that no team is guaranteed to win the league, and that’s a great place to be,’ he says.
‘People will tip Pats, Rovers and Shels, Bohs as dark horses, but we beat Shels twice last year and they won the league. Look at Cork City – some people say they can challenge, others say they can’t, but if Seanie Maguire hits 20 goals for City, they’ll be in the mix. I think the league will be very tight, at both ends of the table,’ adds Caulfield, who knows every point gathered counts, starting on Friday night. With the attention all on the Dublin clubs and the return of Cork City, the West Cork man in Galway is hoping they’ll sail under the radar again.
