In a fortnight's time, Dundalk will play in the Champions League playoff round, the final stage of Champions League pre-qualifying. They are the first Irish club to reach that phase since Shelbourne in 2004. Unlike Shels, they are guaranteed a place in the Europa League group phase as a worst case scenario. Such a thing didn't exist in 2004.
They already have back-to-back League titles under their belt, the latter of which was a cakewalk. While the Premier Division race has tightened up a bit this year, Dundalk are still on course to win their third League in a row. If they pull it off, they'll be the first team to win three in a row since the Shamrock Rovers four-in-a-row side of the 1980s.
Before last night's game, we decided to assess where Dundalk stood in the pantheon of great Irish teams. Furthermore, we determined to find out who are the greatest League of Ireland team ever assembled.
We asked five experts. Consensus proved utterly impossible but it provided interesting fodder for debate.
These interviews were conducted before last night's stunning win. Therefore, we contacted a few of our experts again today to get their updated comments. They have been included at the bottom.
Peter Byrne
Former Irish Times football correspondent
The team of the 50s in my opinion was Shamrock Rovers - 'Coad's Colts' - and if you asked me to name the best League of Ireland team I have ever seen, it would have been from that era and it would be Shamrock Rovers.
The 50s was the golden era of League of Ireland. Television hadn't yet arrived. So, the crowds were big. There wasn't this fascination with English teams.
For example, in 1956, West Germany were the reigning World Cup holders. They came with a team to Dublin. Not their strongest team but nonetheless a West German international team. .
It was 'Ireland 3-0 West Germany' and there were seven League of Ireland players on the team. Four of them were from Shamrock Rovers - Ronnie Nolan, Gerry Mackey (the captain), Jimmy McCann and Noel Peyton.
So, the Rovers team of the 50s would have been, for me, the best League of Ireland team of all-time.
They were beaten 6-0 against Manchester United in the first European match played in Dublin. It was a huge disappointment. But in the return leg, they lost only 3-2 in Old Trafford. That was only five months before the Munich air disaster wiped out so many of that team.
SHAMROCK ROVERS : 1953-1959
Honours:
League of Ireland: 1953-54, 1956-57, 1958-59
FAI Cup: 1955, 1956
European Cup performance:
1957-58: Lost to Manchester United 9-2 on aggregate (First Round)
1959-60: Lost to Nice 4-3 on aggregate (First Round)
Pat Fenlon
Won 3 League of Ireland titles as a player and 5 titles as manager
The best team I've seen without a shadow of a doubt was the Rovers team of the 1980s. I don't think there's anybody who has come near them since then. I've played in a few good teams. I've managed a few good teams. But they're by far the best team I've seen playing in the League of Ireland.
I still maintain that Pat Byrne was the best player I've seen playing in the League from then to now. I don't think there's anybody who got near him.
If you look at the players who came out of it, even, the likes of John Coady and Liam O'Brien went and played in the Premier League, the old First Division as it was then. I think that shows you the calibre of players they had then.
All around the pitch they had fantastic players. Harry Kenny, John Coady, Kevin Brady. Dermot Keely was a fantastic player. People didn't give him the credit he deserved. Very quick, very clever defender.
They lost a great partnership in Eoin Campbell and Liam Buckley and brought in Noel Larkin and Mick Byrne, who were two great players.
We had a very good side at Shelbourne (2003-06). We had some great players as well. The likes of Wesley Hoolahan who went on to better things. Owen Heary probably comes close to Pat Byrne as one of the best players in the League but I still don't think they were as good as the Rovers team of the 80s.
What of Dundalk?
Look, they're a good side. For me, I watched that Shamrock Rovers teams (1980s) at the time and the quality of players they had all over the pitch. I don't think there's been anyone near them since.
Post Dundalk win update
For me, the Shamrock Rovers side of the 80s is still the best team I've seen and I wouldn't change that. Fantastic result for Dundalk last night but I wouldn't change.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: 1983-87
Honours:
League of Ireland titles: 1983-84, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1986-87
FAI Cup: 1985, 1986, 1987
European Cup performance:
1984-85: Lost to Linfield on away goals (First Round)
1985-86: Lost 5-1 to Honved (Hungary) on aggregate (First Round)
1986-87: Lost 3-0 to Celtic on aggregate (First Round)
1987-88: Lost 1-0 to Omonia (Cyprus) on aggregate (First Round)
Stuey Byrne
4 time League of Ireland winner + Off the Ball pundit
My best team would be the Shels team (2003-06). And I think it's only because of what they achieved in Europe. That was a huge jump forward for League of Ireland clubs.
It's a sign of the achievement that it hasn't been replicated. I know Shamrock Rovers got to the Europe League group stages. But that's the Europa League and it's a different pathway. It's a different quality of team that you would be playing in the Champions League.
What of Dundalk?
Since that Shelbourne team, Dundalk are the best team I've seen. And I actually think they're better than the Shamrock Rovers team (2011). But unfortunately, history doesn't tend to remember opinions. It's really facts that people talk about. You can talk about Dundalk going on to win three Leagues and people will talk about them in that bracket.
In years gone by, people would have spoken about League of Ireland teams and whether they won three Leagues in a row or four Leagues in a row or they won Doubles. But that's domestically. And I hate to undermine the domestic league but they can be hit and miss. You can have a good league one year, you can have an awful league the next year.
I think the sign of a good League of Ireland team is how it achieves in Europe. I think that's what history will look back on. And that's why I speak about the Shelbourne team I played on so highly. We won three Leagues out of four but we also made huge leaps forward in European football.
There's probably a mixed view of what we achieved when we played Deportivo and people are probably a bit sick of it because we didn't progress. But people realise now that the team that knocked us out of Champions League at the final hurdle were four months previously playing in the semi-final against the winners, FC Porto.
You have to put in perspective what we were close to doing. I look at Europe. It's a little bit easy to credit League teams because they won so many League titles.
Post Dundalk win update:
Dundalk now go down as one of the greatest League of Ireland teams of all time. I'm so happy for them. It was quite emotional. It's 12 years since we (Shelbourne) done it, it's five years since Rovers done it. These things come around so seldom. And the nature of yesterday's win means it could be a generational thing. Hopefully, the League capitalises on it.
SHELBOURNE: 2003-06
Honours:
League of Ireland: 2003, 2004, 2006
European Cup performance:
2004-05: Beat KR Reykjavik on away goals in first round. Beat Hajduk Split 4-3 on aggregate in second round. Lost 3-0 to Deportivo in third qualifying round (one step away from CL group stage).
2005-06: Beat Glentoran 6-2 on aggregate in first round. Lost 4-1 to Steau Bucharest in second round.
Pat Dolan
Managed Pat's to LOI title in 1997-98
I'm very clear. It's the Cork City team that won the League in 2005. Just look at the full internationals that played on that team, Kevin Doyle, Shane Long, Alan Bennett, Joe Gamble. And yet they weren't the best players. Probably the best players were John O'Flynn and George O'Callaghan.
I managed other teams that won the League. But that team was the best team. In every single position they had strength in depth and quality. It was just a new level to what I had seen in the League. They way they trained. Their professionalism. The way they conducted themselves.
Any of those players could have been full internationals. Michael Devine was the best goalkeeper I ever worked with. Dan Murray was the captain and centre half. There was just quality everywhere. Roy O'Donovan as well, who has had a great career in England and Scotland and abroad.
I don't think an Irish team has ever had forward positions where you've got Kevin Doyle, John O'Flynn, George O'Callaghan, Roy O'Donovan competing for two forward positions.
Everything kind of fell apart (after 2005). Players were sold because of success. Kevin Doyle was sold and other players thought 'I'm as good as him' and so they wanted to be sold as well. So, it was a victim of its own success.
I remember the season before (2004) we'd gone into European competition and we beat Malmo home and way, comfortably. We knocked out Gent who had Johan Neeskens as coach.
It was just a superb team. And these guys believed in themselves. They didn't feel inferior. And we'd drum it in all the time, 'listen, why are you not playing for Ireland? Don't think you're a success winning League titles or trophies, you're going to play for your country.' And that's all gone now.
These players went on and showed how good Irish professional players are. It was a team that should have been the start of greatness but if you look at the neglect and the lack of ability of the people who run the game.
Listen, they feel inferior. It's the people who run the game who feel inferior. They bow down and idolise the mediocrity of English football instead of looking at a wider European level and saying 'hey, where do we fit in?'
That team was a victim of its own success. But in terms of teams, I've never seen anything like it.
In terms of teams I've managed and coached, the team (St. Pat's) in 1997 and 1998 that won back-to-back League titles. That was a great team. And the team of 2002 with Charles Mbabazai Livingstone was a great team. But it was far inferior to that Cork team.
What of Dundalk?
I think in terms of the management, it's up there with the greatest managerial achievements of all time. The job that Stephen Kenny is done is remarkable. What a great manager he is.
As a team, I think it's a very good team but if you look at the people competing for forward positions - and I love David McMillan, I think he's fantastic - but if you look at their options in forward areas compared to that Cork team, there's no comparison.
Post Dundalk win update
It's the best managerial achievement... to beat them 3-0. Stephen Kenny has to be the next Ireland international manager.
If you look at traditionally the teams that dominated, when Rovers assembled, they assembled all the best players in the League, Shels did it, Bohs did it.
Dundalk didn't. They just got really good people. In terms of the talent, there's an argument that other teams had more talent. But there's perhaps not an argument that a team has been managed better and that all the players were playing at their maximum.
CORK CITY: 2004-05
Honours:
League of Ireland 2005
European Cup performance:
2005-06: Beat Appollan Limossal 2-1 on aggregate in first round. Lost 4-0 to Red Star Belgrade in the second round.
John Dodge
Balls.ie League of Ireland guru
Plenty hold the Shamrock Rovers team of the 1980s up as a great team but they did historically badly in Europe. They were beaten by Linfield over two legs. The only League of Ireland team to lose to a Irish League team in Europe.
There was a Cork team who won five out of six Leagues in the 40s. They dominated but there's no European barometer for them. But if they talk about the golden age of Irish football being pre-TV, they must have been all-right.
In modern times, the Shelbourne of the noughties that won a few Leagues and they did okay in Europe. The 2004 team that beat Split and went on to play Deportivo was an exceptionally strong team. And the guts of that team went on to make up a very strong Bohs team (later in the decade).
The Bohs team that won the League in 2008 and 2009 was very strong. In my opinion, they'd beat this Dundalk team. But in Europe team, they failed in Europe. They beat a Welsh team and lost to a crappy Latvian team in the Inter-Toto Cup. And the following year they lost narrowly to Red Bull Salzburg. That could have made them.
If I was to rank the champions of the summer soccer era, you'd have 1.) Shels (2003-06) 2.) Rovers (2010-11) 3.) Bohs (2008-09) 4.) the current Dundalk team.
Now, if they beat BATE tonight, it'll be a different story...
Post Dundalk win update:
We said if Dundalk had won last night, they'd have to be reassessed. They kinda have to be. That win last night is the best of all-time by any team.
If you've completed back-to-back titles and you've put in the best European performance, and they're pretty much untouchable in this country at the moment, though I know Cork beat them twice this year. But this result has to put them up there.
It's hard to judge it at the moment. We can look back on Shels and assess what they did whereas this Dundalk team are in it at the moment. You don't want to rush to overpraise them but that win for me leaps them ahead of everyone.
I still think, man for man, the Bohs 2008 team would have beaten them but what Dundalk have done in Europe, you have to give them the plaudits.
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