INTERNATIONAL RULES:THE SUN beat down on the Gold Coast's Metricon Stadium. Unforgivingly, as is sometimes said, although after more than a week of Melbourne's indecisive spring weather the Irish contingent weren't seeing the Queensland climate in such a pejorative light.
The major shock arrived about half-way through the pre-match media conference for this morning’s second Test when an Australian journalist suggested that one way of countering the much-discussed apathy of some AFL players towards the series would be to play all of the Tests in Ireland.
As the panicked, did-she-really-say-that? expressions spread throughout the visiting media, Ireland manager Anthony Tohill began to speak. “One of the beauties of the series is that we get to come to Australia to experience the country, the culture and learn things from the AFL – how they approach their sport – and that’s part of the attraction. I think it would be the wrong way to go to have it predominantly in one country rather than the other.”
There haven’t been as many Irish people so collectively appreciative of a leader’s speech since de Valera’s reply to Churchill.
Much of the questions directed at AFL coach Rodney Eade and captain Brad Green centred on what exactly they could do to overturn the record deficit from the first Test. In the existential despair over the future of the internationals, many solutions are sought from “let the Australians/Irish (whoever’s not as good) win the second Test but not by much” to “beat the lard out of each other – but in a humane and entertaining way”.
“It’s difficult for us to improve greatly at kicking (the round ball) in the space of a week,” was Eade’s realistic if downbeat assessment of where the home side could improve, “but certainly in those areas of our game that we’re good at in AFL, I thought the Irish outplayed us. Such as tackling, chasing back and putting pressure on opposition.
“We’ve been training hard all week to bounce back and the performance level has been a very high standard. For these players of AFL standard the performance wasn’t acceptable and we’ve got to lift it.”
It wasn’t hard to detect the sense of grievance amongst Tohill and his vice captain Ciarán McKeever at the manner in which, having prepared and implemented a response to last year’s series loss in Ireland, the team have found their achievement so qualified by reference to problems the international game is undergoing.
On any empirical basis the first Test display was excellent – the defence conceded only 36, Ireland’s lowest total of the modern series and at the other end they equalled their record score in internationals, 80 – running second only to Australia’s awesome 2005 first-test total of 100.
But the talk hasn’t been universally congratulatory but more about how poor the opposition was and how uninterested the public – the equivalent of glares and an accusatory “what were you thinking of, out there?”
“There’s another aspect to this that’s out of our control,” said Tohill. “We can’t force people to come out of their houses and come to watch something they don’t want to watch. We played in Ireland last year in Croke Park when Brad was playing and there were 60,000-plus people there, probably the biggest sporting event in Europe that weekend. So it’s probably annoying for us to hear all of the negativity that surrounds the series every time something happens.
“If we were coming to this, having lost both games the series would probably be dead for other reasons – that we couldn’t compete. So the series survives because we can compete but the apathy of whether it be players or spectators is something for others to work on.
“We’re looking after our part to the best of our ability. The future of the series should be fine if people put in the effort. It’s too important, too precious to our players to let it go.”
McKeever agreed that the players had had no difficulty in motivating themselves.
“Yeah, definitely. We probably got no credit for the result last week because people were saying they didn’t pick a strong team. But we worked hard before we came out.”
Match Panels
IRELAND
1 Stephen Cluxton (capt, Dublin), 18 Ciarán McKeever, (v capt, Armagh), 8 Finian Hanley (Galway), 21 Neil McGee (Donegal), 19 Kevin McKernan (Down), 9 Pearse Hanley (Mayo/Brisbane), 2 Colm Begley (Laois), 28 Zach Tuohy (Laois/Carlton), 14 Tadhg Kennelly (Kerry/Swans), 7 Leighton Glynn (Wicklow), 31 Tommy Walsh (Kerry/Swans), 20 Joe McMahon (Tyrone), 23 Michael Murphy (Donegal), 6 Kieran Donaghy (Kerry), 16 Steven McDonnell (Armagh), 3 Emmet Bolton (Kildare), 4 Eoin Cadogan (Cork), 5 Eamonn Callaghan (Kildare), 11 Darren Hughes (Monaghan), 13 Paddy Kelly (Cork), 22 Brendan Murphy (Carlow), 27 Kevin Reilly (Meath), 30 Aidan Walsh (Cork), 15 Karl Lacey (Donegal).
AUSTRALIA
1 Matthew Suckling (Hawthorn), 40 David Wojcinski (Geelong), 9 James Kelly (v capt, Geelong), 29 Easton Wood (W Bulldogs), 8 James Frawley (Melbourne), 4 Andrew Swallow (N Melbourne); 2 Zac Smith (Gold Coast), 17 Bernie Vince (Adelaide), 11 Mitch Robinson (Carlton), 6 Angus Monfries (Essendon), 21 Ben McGlynn (Swans), 18. Brad Green (v capt, Melbourne), 5 Shaun Grigg (Richmond), 16 Robin Nahas (Richmond), 3 Liam Shiels (Hawthorn), 7 Mark Nicoski (W Coast), 10 Jack Trengove (Melbourne), 13 Trent McKenzie (Gold Coast), 14 Callan Ward (GWS Giants), 15 Robbie Gray (P Adelaide), 26 Richard Douglas (Adelaide Crows), 44 Stephen Milne (St Kilda), Joel Patfull (Brisbane).
Referees – David Coldrick (GAA) and Ray Chamberlain (AFL).
Rules of the Rules
* The field measures 145 metres x 90 metres.
* Matches last 72 minutes, broken into four 18-minute quarters.
* A goal is worth six points, and over (a point in Gaelic football) is worth three and a behind (between goal post and outer post) is worth one.
* If both teams have won one match following the tests in Perth and Melbourne, the team with the highest aggregate score is awarded the series.
* Red cards result in a player being sent off and not replaced. Yellow cards result in a sin binning for 10 minutes.
* A tackle constitutes grabbing an opponent in possession of the football between the shoulders and thighs, using both arms. One-armed tackles are not permitted.
* A mark will be awarded if a player catches the ball after it has been kicked at least 15 metres by another player.
* A player may not enter the small rectangle before the ball unless it has been kicked before he enters.
* When running with the ball players must bounce or touch it on the ground every 10 metres (or six steps). However, there is no limit to the number of times players can solo or toe tap the ball between hand and foot instead of bouncing.
* Shoulder charges or bumps are allowed, provided neither player is airborne and the football is no more than five metres away.
* Slinging, slamming or driving an opponent into the ground when executing a tackle shall be deemed gross misconduct earning a red card. Inter-change players will be allowed from the match panel of 24, 15 of whom will start, but changes are restricted to 10 per quarter.
* Teams in possession of the football shall not be allowed to make more than four consecutive hand-passes before disposing of the ball by foot.
