Experience stood to Ireland

Whether last Sunday was a case of Ireland's best performance or Australia's worst has been a central topic in the first-Test fallout. One man with perfect credentials to judge is John O'Keeffe, manager of Ireland for the past two series and a selector for the previous four.

"Australia aren't as strong a team as in the past," he says. "They're short a few key players - the sort of big men who can play ball like Wayne Carey and Nathan Buckley in the past. Someone like Barry Hall would have made a big difference.

"But their problems were more about naivety than lack of effort. Given their difficulties with the round ball I thought they would use the kick as sparingly as possible and concentrate on moving the ball with fisted passes, which they're still better at than we are.

"But in all of my time involved in this code the most surprising thing about it was the amount of time and space that the Irish forwards had on the ball. In every game up until this year you had literally split seconds to release the ball before you were tackled.

"That was very obviously absent last week but you have to credit the Irish for the accuracy of their kicking."

Experience, O'Keeffe feels, was vital and Ireland had the obvious upper hand in that department. On Sunday, Ireland had 10 players in the starting 15 who had played at international level before whereas the visitors had only four.

"Take Benny Coulter, who was excellent last week. He was very accurate with his kicks whereas last year in Perth he missed some easy ones. Experience at the game is a tremendous help. In terms of overall understanding Ireland were well ahead."

He expects, however, that the Australians will have learned from the crushing experience of the first Test, particularly the consequences of not marking tightly and tackling decisively.

"Ciarán McDonald wasn't tackled, wasn't hit and he's such a fine play-maker that he was able to pick his shots. He has that decision-making ability and his Gaelic football skills were allowed come to the fore.

"One of the most important qualities in International Rules is vision. A player must be able to see the tackle from any angle before it comes. Séamus Moynihan was brilliant at that, had great upper-body strength and was rarely put to ground. Ciarán also has those attributes. He needs close marking."

One of the aspects of the reaction to last weekend's match that most surprised O'Keeffe was the questioning of the series' future after the most one-sided Test match ever played.

"There's no need to rush to judgment because of one result. The whole concept has been a terrific idea. The Australians will bounce back, maybe this weekend but certainly next year.

"It's been great to see Mattie Forde playing at the highest level, and players like him, and our own game has benefited a lot from the contact.

"Moving the ball before you get tackled was one of the Irish strengths last week and the sooner we can get that into our own game the better.

"The mark also offers us something. I often saw Darragh Ó Sé fielding the ball over everybody but being swarmed around when he landed and the possession was lost. So the great art of fielding gets no reward."

Finally, O'Keeffe is particularly glad that the trophy has been named after the late Cormac McAnallen.

"I worked with Cormac since he was brought into the Irish panel and I think he exemplified the playing of the game in the best possible spirit.

"It's a fitting tribute."