Sport

Sizing up to a level playing field

International Compromise Rules: Despite a week of speculation about the Australians' physical advantages, the player statistics…

By Sean Moran
Fri Oct 24 2003 - 01:00

International Compromise Rules: Despite a week of speculation about the Australians' physical advantages, the player statistics indicate that both panels are more or less evenly matched.

Going by the details of the official match programme, Irish players emerge with an average height of just under 6ft 1in whereas Australia average just over that height.

It's a similar story with the respective weight statistics. Ireland's 27 players average just over 13st whereas their 26 opponents come in around 4lbs a man heavier.

There is a caveat in that not all of the details are guaranteed accurate. Some of the rounding-up in calculations from centimetres and kilograms to imperial measures might have distorted the individual details and Ireland manager John O'Keeffe takes issue with a couple of them.

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"I'd say Joe Higgins is definitely overstated," he said about the Laois defender's figures, given as 6ft 1in and nearly 13st. "Joe is deceptively tall but he'd be about 5ft 11in and when we weighed the players the other night he was 10st 4lbs."

Commenting in general on the statistics, O'Keeffe felt that some of the players' details were slightly overstated but that some had been understated. Overall the implication is that Ireland's reputedly smaller and lighter players aren't in fact at the physical disadvantage that had been assumed.

"I know that when they were at the (Western Australian) Governor's reception the other night, the players were pleasantly surprised to see that the Australians weren't as formidable looking as they had been led to believe," said O'Keeffe.

Ireland's players are more uniform in size but Australia have the biggest footballers, including five players of 6ft 5in or more whereas Ireland have none. But the four shortest players involved in the series are on the home side, including captain Shane Crawford at 5ft 9½in.

The tallest players on either side are Colin Corkery at 6ft 4½in and Jade Rawlings, 6ft 6½in and at the other end of the scale, Stephen Kelly is 5ft 10½in, and the shortest man in the series, Brent Harvey, measures 5ft 7in.