IRELAND MANAGER Anthony Tohill has been at pains to explain that he and his management can hardly take the future of the series into account when preparing the team to play Australia in tomorrow morning’s second Test at the Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast.
He and the Irish players do acknowledge that the vast lead taken by the visitors creates problems for the promotion of the second Test in a largely experimental venue, where the AFL are trying to build profile.
Fewer than 20,000 will attend, making the series the most poorly attended since the internationals were revived in 1998 and giving the GAA and AFL plenty to talk about in tomorrow’s review meeting.
Anyway, it’s too late to make the series competitive, as Ireland take a record lead into the second Test. The best outcome is likely to be a competitive display by the Australians, who kicked and competed poorly last week.
What are the chances of that happening? Even the biggest turnaround in an international series had to target only an eight-point deficit and the trend with big first-Test leads has been that they are expanded in the second.
There’s no doubt that Australia will have benefited from a week’s practice kicking the round ball, but the evidence of Melbourne suggested that it might take longer than a week to achieve a functional mastery.
The home side also failed to get any traction in the physical exchanges. The tackle count was even, but Ireland’s hits were harder and more disruptive, as acknowledged by AFL coach Rodney Eade – a tribute to Kieran McGeeney’s work in the tackle and the physical fitness of the team, supervised by Mike McGurn.
For the first time in the history of the international series, the Australians have had to take criticism that they weren’t as fit as their GAA opponents, something that shocked Eade.
Given the volatility of the series you can never rule out something unexpectedly going wrong, but it’s hard to imagine what would be in it for the hosts to let loose the dogs tomorrow, as it would add another problem to the international game’s now impressive portfolio without achieving any great effect.
In addition, they didn’t give the impression of being a team with a pronounced physical edge.
They have to make one change, bringing in the Brisbane Lions’ Joel Patfull, another industrious, running midfield player, to replace injured hard man Jake King.
Ireland have yet to decide on their panel, with the big question surrounding injuries to Joe McMahon and Emmet Bolton and whether Karl Lacey will become the first fit player to travel to Australia and not play at all in a Test.
So much negative speculation has surrounded the first Test that the quality of Ireland’s performance has been lost in the considerable hand wringing that accompanies any shift in equilibrium on the part of the international series.
At the back, Ireland conceded their lowest total of the modern series, just 36, whereas up front they equalled their record score in internationals, 80 – running second only to Australia’s awesome 2005 first-Test total of 100.
Stephen Cluxton showed the form that makes him the GAA’s best international goalkeeper – running around as a seventh defender and making himself available for players under pressure – until the error of judgement that allowed Australia get their goal appeared to undermine his confidence. But he still handled more ball than anyone else – 40 per cent more than his nearest rival.
It’s hard to separate a convincing performance from under-achieving opposition, but to score as well as Ireland did requires finishing accuracy that simply measures a team against itself. Ireland satisfied all requirements.
They were within one infringement of equalling the record of five goals in a Test and their tally of 17 overs has been bettered in just three Tests in 28 years.
So, empirically, Ireland were very good. Tadhg Kennelly ran the show at midfield in the early stages, creating a pattern that was never convincingly disrupted. His cleverness in knowing how to combine the tricks of both games gave his team a head start, whereas his leadership was recognised when the officials treated him as a de facto captain when seeking to restore order after a brief rumpus.
Selector Eoin Liston’s ambition in the past couple of years has been for Ireland to create the same attacking marks as the Australians at their best have been able to execute in order to minimise the margin of error for kicking the over.
The approach was slightly different in the first Test, but nonetheless prioritised the creation of chances and unselfish distribution to the best placed player.
The razor-sharp finishing of players like Tommy Walsh, Michael Murphy and Steven McDonnell left very little room for Australia to manoeuvre a way back into contention even had they been going reasonably well.
Ireland have never scored as few behinds (the one-point score for kicking a relatively respectable wide – meant to encourage the Aussies, but frequently a source of consolation for our boys) in a Test going back to 1984 – further testament to the economic shooting.
Australia were so at odds with the round ball from the early minutes in the Etihad Stadium when Robin Nahas and Ben McGlynn nearly hit the corner flag – in the MCG – that Ireland never felt a threat on the scoreboard.
James Kelly with 22 possessions – well up with his premiership season average for Geelong and suggesting that the sentiment he should have been made captain wasn’t misplaced – and Bernie Vince with 27 were conspicuously Australia’s most productive players, their ball count coming in competitive sectors.
Captain Brad Green showed good finishing instinct as he had done last year, but the Australian struggles were too widespread for any hope of a breakout.
Ireland might, as Kennelly has suggested, have difficulties with focus in a match all but irrelevant to overall victory, but the mood is too urgent for that to offer the hosts even the limited face saving of a split series.
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 Tadgh 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 trophy is called the Cormac McAnallen Cup after the late Tyrone and Ireland player.
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.
AFL umpire Ray Chamberlain and GAA referee David Coldrick will officiate. There will also be an independent video match referee, South African lawyer Ian Curlewis, who will record yellow and red
card offences not spotted by the official.
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.
Suspensions shall apply during the AFL and NFL seasons.
Slinging, slamming or driving an opponent into the ground when executing a tackle shall be deemed gross misconduct and earn 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.
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