Newcastle West's Brouder excited by Galway challenge

Newcastle West native Killian Brouder recently re-signed for Airtricity League First Division club Galway United for the upcoming 2020 season.

Brouder signed for Galway midway through last season as he was forced to leave Limerick FC due to ongoing financial problems at the club.

Limerick were only allowed to sign amateur players and as the deadline for transferring from professional ( which Killian was at the time) to amateur, he had to leave his hometown club.

The centre-back was happy to re-sign with the Eamon Deacy Park outfit and feels he has settled in very well.

“It’s going really well at Galway. Murphy (Alan Murphy) has put a good squad together. We have a lot of ambition within the group and that is what he wants.

“Personally, pre-season has been going well. I picked up a slight knock last week but I came back in against St. Pats and we have to play Bohemians which will be our last pre-season game game before the season starts.”

Although Brouder started out as a squad member under former Limerick manager Martin Russell in the early days, it wasn’t until his U-19 manager Tommy Barrett took over that he became a permanent fixture in the first team squad.

Brouder says that he has learned a lot from Barrett and feels that new manager Alan Murphy can bring out the best in him.

“Both of them know the league very well. Tommy (Barrett) was a centre-back as well and he thought me everything I knew about the game. Murph is different.

“He likes me to get on the ball and that’s the kind of player I am. Other than that, both of them were ambitious and that’s where I want to be. I want to win trophies and that’s why I came back to Galway again.”

There is a large Limerick presence in the Galway squad ahead of the new campaign. Jack Lynch, son of former Limerick FC manager Tommy Lynch, joined at the same time as Brouder and although he is from Shannon, played with Limerick all the way through his underage career.

Also, Brouder’s former captain Shane Duggan has signed along with former schoolboy team-mate Sam Warde.

The county Limerick man is happy to be re-united with the above players and is looking forward to the year ahead.

“I have obviously played with Duggie (Shane Duggan), Sam Warde at underage level and played with Jack at U-19’s and last season. It will be interesting to see what way the league goes and what format will be used.”

Galway have also recruited Josh Smith from Finn Harps and Enda Curran as the club attempt to return to the Airtricity League Premier Division for the first time in three years.

Although Brouder feels the club have recruited strongly, he says they have not set out any long term targets including promotion.

“Our main aim is to be competitive and we finished strongly last season which Murph realised and he now wants to build on it.

“We will go game by game and we are not going to set out long term goals just yet. We want to see how the first few games go.”

With less than two weeks to go until the start of the First Division, clubs are unaware of the make-up of the league as of yet due to the recent High Court victory for Limerick FC which saw them granted permission to apply for an Airtricity League First Division licence. Brouder admits it is frustrating.

“It’s two weeks until the beginning of the season and we don’t know who we are playing. But look the decision has been made for us and we can’t do anything about it. We can only do our but and see where it goes then.”

The Limerick native is very disappointed at the prospect of no Limerick senior side in the Airtricity League next season but admits recent developments on Shannonside have been embarrassing for the league.

“I loved my time at Limerick and I followed them since when I was a young boy going to games. That’s where I wanted to be and that’s where I ended up thanks to the good staff in there.

“There’s a lot of good people in Limerick soccer and as a fan I wish they will come back into the league soon. Limerick is a big city and it should have senior football and underage football.

“When I was U-19’s, we were winning leagues and we were getting to finals. That’s the way it should be.”