Lyon bows out giving credit to Irish team

The fallout from a heavy defeat is never pretty. After two weeks in Ireland, Gary Lyon's tenure as Australian manager came to an inglorious end yesterday with relations between the AFL legend and his home media seemingly almost completely broken down. He also feels the Irish have unceremoniously beaten him with the stick of roughhouse tactics, something he has denied repeatedly over the last two years, and did so again yesterday.

Yet, when a fight breaks out before the ball is even thrown in, it is not exactly a surprise he is queried over it once more. He strenuously denied prompting his players into such action.

"I was walking up the stairs at that particular time. I heard the roar, turned around and it was on," he said.

Not guilty by disassociation.

While pleased that his side at least fronted up yesterday, Lyon took his hat off to the Irish performances in both Tests. "Across the board, Ireland as a team were fantastic. They finished better than us. We put them under as much pressure as we could. They stepped up to the plate, not just the goalkeeper (Stephen Cluxton) but the whole team."

The Australians have had to come to terms with the fact that Gaelic football has evolved - they can even take a small bit of credit for that. The much criticised blanket-defending that has developed in recent years has been a huge help in overcoming the unstructured attacks of the Australians.

No longer will the physical element be a serious hindrance, nor the fitness in the final quarter, as elite players develop physical conditioning akin to professional athletes. They will never perfect the tackle, but they may not need to.

"I'm not talking about the blue (an Aussie word for dust-up), but when we started tackling and chasing and harassing they made some mistakes they didn't make last week. It remains our best chance when we do that," added Lyon.

Tadhg Kennelly continued the theme from a slightly different perspective. All afternoon he was antagonised but he never took the bait. The Irish knew from previous years that to be drawn into the physical stakes is to risk losing concentration on the ultimate prize.

"You get used to it. It's something I have learned over there. It's part of their game," explained Kennelly. "There was a bit of it at the start of the game but football is our game, football is what we like to play, and I think we beat them playing football. There is no point in us trying to play Australian Rules.

"A whole lot of our boys they actually stood up, took the knocks and didn't retaliate. Retaliation is what the Australian boys wanted from us because they are good footballers and they didn't want us playing good football."

One thing Kennelly did notice about returning to the GAA environment is the more professional approach taken by players. "The actual training, the way things are gone about, they are done a lot better. Players are asked do they want this . . . it's all about the players, which is fantastic to see."

Something that may tempt his return to the green and gold colours in the coming years?

"I'll be home, there's no doubt about that. No doubt about that."

This Irish panel were intent on acquiring the new Cormac McAnallen Cup, as epitomised by Ciáran McManus: "At half-time when they were on top we said to ourselves 'Cormac would not lie down'. We did this for Cormac, for everyone, all the team.

"We just said; 'look it, they are taking the game to us. The hell with this we'll just go at them', and we did, man for man. I won't say they weren't able for us but we got a break there and they couldn't get back. Then we were in the comfort zone.

"This is our Olympics. Our gold medal. Every player, Pete McGrath keeps saying it, you are the elite. Although you don't feel it, you're picked as one of the best in the country and there are so many lads you owe this to when the pressure is on. I hope we did every player in the country proud by that performance today and last week."

The final word has to go to McGrath, who in victory refused to lash out at those who criticised his decision to omit certain players (mainly Colm Cooper and Kieran McGeeney).

"I think when you pick any national squad there is always going to be controversy and there is going to be debate about it. If that didn't happen it would be very irregular. People are entitled to their opinion and people who are left out it's no disrespect to them as players. We had to pick people on form, current form means an awful lot."