Shels, Shamrock Rovers, and Pats find out European routes
Last week's completion of a 2-1 aggregate victory over Linfield advanced the League of Ireland title holders to the second round of the Champions League.
A byproduct of progression is the guarantee of three extra European ties, ensuring two backdoors to the lucrative €3m group phase, were they to come up short against Qarabag.
Joey O'Brien's side host the Azerbaijani champions in Wednesday's first leg at Tolka Park before making the long trek to Baku a week later.
Group stage involvement has been a constant for Qarabag over the last 11 years but should they be rumbled by the Reds, the Irish kingpins will be rewarded by facing the winner of a tie between Macedonians Shkendija and FCBS, the club rebuilt from the ashes of 1986 champions Steaua Bucharest from Romania.
Were stature and resources to apply, and Shels slip out of the supreme competition, awaiting them in the Europa League will be the loser of a Champions League clash between Ludogorets (Bulgaria) or Rijeka (Croatia). Failure to advance there still leaves them a third life of a Conference League playoff.
Elsewhere, Shamrock Rovers have fared well by drawing either Ballkani of Kosovo or Malta's Floriana in the third round. They must first dispose of St Joseph's of Gibraltar, starting with Thursday's away leg.
St Patrick's Athletic will also be favourites to see off Nomme Kalju of Estonia, kicking off at Richmond Park on Thursday, and will meet in the third round the loser of the tie between Ole Gunnar Solskjær's Besiktas or Shakhtar Donetsk if they prevail.
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IT'S A FRESH, bright weekday morning in Melbourne and the city is alive with people bustling to work. As the rush goes on outside, Alex McHenry is sitting in a quiet hotel lobby, taking a moment to pause and reflect. The former Munster centre will be in the office soon himself, but he's good enough to explain how he has come to live here. At the age of 27, McHenry is an ex-professional rugby player, but there wasn't any dramatic retirement. He came to Australia 12 months ago for an adventure and he's had no reason to go home yet. The Cork man reckons he'll stay for another few years. He's still playing rugby in Melbourne with the superbly-named Power House in the Dewar Shield, the highest level of the club game in this neck of the woods. It was rugby that partly brought him to Australia in the first place, McHenry making a big impact as he helped Easts to win the Shute Shield in Sydney last year. 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