Coach criticises 'unfit' Australians

INTERNATIONAL RULES:WITH THEIR few days' break cancelled, Ireland's International Rules panel travelled straight to the Gold Coast yesterday to begin preparations for Friday's second Test.

Grounded by the Qantas dispute, the players stayed in Melbourne on Saturday night and skipped the scheduled break in Terrigal, a coastal resort near Sydney. The team had a recovery session at the St Kilda club the following morning.

There was good news for the panel with the discharge of Emmet Bolton from hospital after he had spent Friday night under observation having sustaining a knock to the head and being stretchered off the field in the first Test.

Given the all-clear to rejoin his team-mates, the Kildare player will be assessed for concussion and match fitness during the coming week.

In the aftermath of what was the most one-sided Test match in history, there have been growing concerns for the viability of the international series. The selection of what looked like a poor-quality AFL team had an effect on public interest as well as on Australia’s ability to compete, with fewer than 23,000 in attendance at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium.

Laois’s Colm Begley, one of the Ireland players with AFL experience at Brisbane and St Kilda, and one of the team’s most consistent international performers, is slightly pessimistic about the future of the series.

“In some ways I am, yeah, I am a bit worried about it at this stage. I don’t know if we have the pull from all directions to keep it going. It’s a pity because it’s a great game,” he said.

“I’ve seen a few comments on Twitter and a few people writing things back home and on the radio and they always have something to say about it. Some Irish journalists are even putting it down saying it’s not really an Irish team and it’s not an Irish game.

“But for me you take a sportsperson and ask them if they want to play for their country in any sport and they’ll jump at the chance. It could be table tennis and I’d put on an Irish jersey. We have an opportunity to play with some of the best players from our country against professionals. I don’t care what you say – that’s an unbelievable experience.

“We’ve lads out here and they’ve burst their balls for the whole thing. If the critics saw the huddle in the game after the first or third quarters or the dressingroom at half-time and saw the passion in lads’ faces then they’d believe it.

“They can say what they want about it but they’re not there and they’ll knock it down – I don’t mind. We’ve played our hearts out and that’s good enough for me.”

Begley also revealed he had been asked to suspend activity on his Twitter account in accordance with the wishes of management.

“I just like putting up the odd tweet here and there. I can understand where they were coming from. I see it as a bit of harmless fun and wasn’t going to give any secrets on the team but whatever’s good for the team has to be done and we’ve to stay focused.”

The Australian reaction unsurprisingly hasn’t been positive and the local media published some revealing reports, having been invited to sit in on the pre-match, half-time and post-match team talks. Australia coach Rodney Eade was critical of his team in the wake of the 80-36 defeat.

“I reckon a few blokes here aren’t fit enough,” he told the players afterwards. “If you’re going to play for Australia, it’s all nice to think about taking the jumper, tucking it away and saying to the grandkids: ‘I played for Australia’.

“But if you turn up and you’re not in good enough shape and you can’t run, it’s disgraceful. Disgraceful. You are taking it (the jersey) under false pretences – and there’s a few here who aren’t fit enough.

“On holidays, yeah, don’t do anything . . . I’ll turn up and get the jumper.’ We need to do something about it next game.”

Another theme since Friday night has been the Australian view that they were too subdued in the physical exchanges. Eade told the official media conference that he felt his team had been “too nice” and too observant of “the spirit of the game”.

“We need to be aggressive, and I’ll take responsibility for that,” Eade told his players. “We don’t want to be punching and whatever, but we’re playing aggressively. We played nice footy tonight.

“We need to tackle aggressively . . . bowl them over. The umpires will be consistent. Every time we marked they drove us into the ground . . . we let them play on . . . we didn’t learn. We are making a stand. We’re not going on a holiday on the Gold Coast. We’re doing something about it.”

It was also revealed he told his players that GAA referee David Coldrick would allow some latitude in certain challenges.

“I reckon you can hit the arm. Don’t drag the arm down but hit the arm. Certainly the Gaelic umpire will let it go,” he said.

Ex-Laois player Zach Tuohy, now with Carlton in the AFL and who had an impressive international debut, was sympathetic to his reviled professional colleagues.

“It’s a game that favours Gaelic footballers, to be honest. The simple fact that it’s a round ball means that it’s unnatural for the Australian fellas – so to compete the way they do is a credit to them.

“They won’t be happy and they’ll come out flying the next day – flying in the football sense. They’re not going to back down, they’re not going to be happy and they’re a very proud bunch of lads. I have played with some of them, played against most of them, and they’ll come out swinging.”