Ireland manager Brian McEniff has omitted both Meath's John McDermott and Tyrone's Peter Canavan from his panel for the International Rules series against Australia next month. The players, captain and vice-captain since the series resumed two years ago, played a major part in Ireland's success in each of the two series victories.

"John was based in north Donegal," said McEniff, "with his job and has been farming as well and wasn't able to train as much as he would have wanted. I would dearly love to have him on board but it wasn't possible. Peter also had difficulty with the training and his form isn't as good as it could be."

Both will be considerable losses to the team. McDermott was a dominant figure in each of the last two years and Canavan was one of the most effective forwards on either team.

It means that the Skryne duo of McDermott and McEniff's predecessor Colm O'Rourke, who were to the forefront of recent successes, have both now been replaced. However, their clubmate Trevor Giles was nominated to succeed McDermott some weeks ago. McEniff yesterday revealed that Derry's Anthony Tohill is likely to be named as vice-captain although this has not yet been confirmed.

All told there is quite a large turnover from last year's successful trip to Australia. Thirteen players were not part of that series and 11 have not played International Rules before. Another departure is the selection of two goalkeepers, Cormac Sullivan of Meath and the incumbent, Kerry's Declan O'Keeffe.

According to McEniff, the problem was that O'Keeffe had been unable to attend training because of Kerry's championship run whereas Sullivan has attended the sessions which began in June. O'Keeffe's position is more or less assured given his performances in Australia and more recently in the All-Ireland semi-finals against Armagh.

Of the 11 dropped from last year, Canavan and Joe Kavanagh have been named among the stand-by players. Two of the panel, Armagh captain Kieran McGeeney and Colm McManamon of Mayo, played in the 1998 series but didn't travel to Australia last year. TJ Kilgallon, the former Mayo player, has been named as the team's runner.

The other eight omitted are (excluding McDermott, Canavan and Kavanagh): Ciaran O'Sullivan (Cork), Jarlath Fallon (Galway), Dessie Dolan (Westmeath) who are all injured, Niall Buckley (Kildare) who is in the US, James Nallen, James Horan (both Mayo), John Quane (Limerick) and Derry Foley (Tipperary).

All-Ireland finalists Galway and Kerry each have three players on the panel even though they have been unable to train this summer because of championship commitments. But only one of the six, Kerry's Dara O Se, has not played International Rules before.

Michael Francis Russell came into the reckoning but was felt to lack the requisite upper-body strength. Russell was actually assessed by Australian Rules scouts a couple of years ago but they didn't pursue him - quite possibly for the same reasons as outlined by McEniff.

Beaten semi-finalists Armagh and Kildare whose players were invited to join training after their championship exits have three between them. Kildare's Glen Ryan and Dermot Earley hold their places while Kieran McGeeney (considered unlucky not to travel last year) is the sole Armagh representative.

According to McEniff four other Armagh players were invited to attend the final trial. Diarmuid Marsden didn't arrive; John McEntee and Oisin McConville played but didn't make an impact; while Paul McGrane played well ("showed a feel for it" in the manager's words) but arrived late for the trial. He still makes the stand-by panel. McGrane actually played in the under-17 test between the countries back in 1991.