Treaty United manager Tommy Barrett looks ahead to 2026

TREATY United begin their 2026 SSE Airtricity League of Ireland First Division season on Friday, February 13 away to Munster rivals Cork City at Turners Cross.

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Treaty will be hoping to take the positive form they showed at the end of last season into this up-coming campaign. Manager Tommy Barrett says his side are looking forward to getting started this week as they prepare for yet another demanding First Division season.

"We're looking forward to it now. We're back training full throttle this week. We've a busy couple of weeks ahead, we've four games in the space of two weeks which will help us get a look at some of the new lads and to see can we gel a team together.

"It's great to get back into the routine, the start of pre-season is always good. We always have a tough pre-season, the lads have tough off-season programmes and they always come back in really good condition these days, so we'll hit the ground running with those four games in two weeks and we're looking forward to that."

As is the case with every transfer window, there has been plenty of incomings and outgoings on Shannonside over the course of the winter.

One of those to leave the club in 2025 was talisman Lee Devitt, who transferred to Premier Division side Galway United.
Barrett is confident that the players brought in will help fill the void left by Devitt, who was the club's top goalscorer last season.

"Players come and go every transfer window and you just have to work with what you have and be confident that the lads you're bringing in will be good enough to compete and obviously we have the toughest opening game away to Cork.

"They'll be favourites to win the league and it'll be very tough, but it will be a good opportunity to see where we're at. We've brought in some really good players and we have a few more yet to come in and I think they'll be exciting signings. Hopefully they'll help us hit the ground running and we'll give it a good go again this year.

"We're confident in the group we have. We've signed the likes of Cian Curtis and Ben Feeney, two lads who we know have goals in them.

"We also have the likes of Brian Cunningham and a few U20 strikers who we hope will step up also, the likes of Sean Costelloe and Scott Murphy, hopefully they can compete against these older, more experienced lads. We know they have a lot of potential but they have to realise that potential by getting in and working hard."

Treaty United finished last season superbly well, reaching the First Division Promotion Play-Off final against Bray Wanderers in Athlone.

A Justin Ferizaj 90th minute acrobatic effort broke Treaty hearts in that final, in a game that the Limerick-based side could have won on another day.

Barrett's charges had put a fine run of performances together before that final, with key wins against the likes of Wexford FC, Bray Wanderers and Cobh Ramblers.

Barrett will be hopeful his side can re-ignite last season's form but states that every season is different.

"You never know, every season is different. You have to try and get momentum early. Lots of clubs have strengthened. We went to try and sign some players that went to the likes of Cobh, Kerry and Athlone, so it's a competitive league, you're constantly in competition with other clubs and it's just about being smart with who you sign.

"We've gone for a tighter squad this year. We signed a lot of players last year. We had 25 players last year, but we will be going for 20 to 22 this year.

"You're always looking to compete against the best and no better team to start the season against than Cork City. It won't be easy, but we have a decent record at Turner's Cross and it is a game we are all really looking forward to."