Ireland international rules manager Joe Kernan has not given up on the prospect of Donegal’s Michael Murphy lining out in November’s Test against Australia.
It has been reported Murphy hopes to take an extended break from football in order to re-charge the batteries and to allow some rest for the groin injury which hampered his championship season.
“Michael will be sitting out the next few weeks,” said to Kernan, “but I would be optimistic that he’ll be available for the Test unless his injury problems get worse.”
The Donegal captain has led Ireland into the last two Test series and has been one of the best international players of recent years. Were he to be able to take part it would be a significant boost for the home team.
The Test, which is the only one in this year’s series, takes place in Croke Park on Saturday, November 21st, at least a month later than first Tests have previously been staged.
This later date means that Kernan’s problems with player availability won’t be as acute as they were for some of his predecessors, who had to battle club commitments at the busiest time of the year.
Ireland will meet for a squad training session this weekend before players from Dublin and Kerry are sounded out about their intentions.
Kernan said he he yet to make formal contact with players from the the two All-Ireland finalists.
“Dublin are about to go into a full round of championship at the weekend and we felt it better to allow them the space to do that before making formal approaches. Once the weekend is out of the way we’ll be in touch and take it from there.”
The schedule envisages a training panel of 40 or so players working at weekends until the beginning of November, at which stage it will be reduced to 35, and then to the permitted match-panel size of 23 in the run-up to the Test.
“Apart from one or two injuries, everyone’s said, ‘yes’, so far,” said Kernan, who has already stated that he believes in the primacy of the traditional football skills of catch and kick when devising tactics for the game.
Last year in Perth, Ireland’s kicking – supposed to be their strong suit – malfunctioned badly in the early stages but the team’s fielding – expected to struggle with the new rule requiring kick-outs to travel 45 metres – was very good with Kerry’s David Moran particularly impressive.
The Ireland manager doesn’t believe that the increasing prevalence of the hand pass is undermining the ability of Gaelic footballers to kick the ball.
“There will be an emphasis on kicking ability because I think that’s a skill of the game. It’s just we haven’t been doing it as much. Jack McCaffrey, for instance, is a very modern defender and attacks very effectively but he was also able to deliver a 50-yard kick-pass to Bernard Brogan for Dublin’s first goal against Fermanagh.”
This year’s event is the second time that the series has been reduced to a minimal one game and it remains to be seen if this is the format most likely to stabilise the series after a number of years in decline.
Last year saw an encouraging revival in Australia with the engagement of a number of top AFL players and a near-capacity crowd of 38,262 in Paterson’s Stadium, Perth.
Crowds in Ireland have been falling since a capacity turnout at Croke Park in 2006 provided the series with its biggest attendance in history.
Further Tests in 2010 in Ireland saw slippage, with the aggregate attendance falling below 100,000 for the two Tests – 61,842 in Croke Park and 30,117 in Limerick – before collapsing in 2013 with the lowest attendance ever at a GAA staging of the internationals, when just 28,526 turned out at Croke Park.
This was linked to the decision by the AFL to select a team of indigenous Australians, a restricted selection that was weakened further by withdrawals.
The outcome was that Ireland recorded the biggest win in the history of the series, a two-Test victory on an aggregate score of 173-72.
This November’s match will be expected to generate a good crowd, as it is the only match this year and the AFL are expected to send a strong selection.
