Series veteran targets the score zone to achieve main goal

INTERVIEW STEVEN McDONNELL: SEÁN MORANtalks to the Armagh man who, with seven Tests from four of the past five series, is well qualified to lead his country

QUIET and unassuming as he is, Steven McDonnell’s selection as captain of Ireland’s International Rules team was not a surprise. With seven Tests under his belt in four of the past five series, he is one of the most experienced internationals on the panel.

Moreover he has performed at a consistently high level for his country since creating a minor sensation on his debut seven years ago. On that occasion, having been called up for the trip to Australia by then manager John O’Keeffe, the Armagh forward created a scoring record over the course of a two-Test series with 34 points.

Although Ireland had lost the first Test by eight points there was considerable local media interest in McDonnell, who after 16 points on his debut was vaguely associated with the possibility of an AFL career – although his then age of 24 made that adaptation unlikely – and singled out by Australia coach Gary Lyon as the biggest threat to the home team taking the series. That much was true but even McDonnell’s haul of 18 in the second Test couldn’t quite get Ireland over the line and they lost on aggregate by five points.

He is Ireland’s eighth captain since the internationals resumed in 1998 and, after current manager Anthony Tohill, McDonnell’s former Armagh skipper Kieran McGeeney and fellow panellist Seán Cavanagh from Tyrone, the fourth Ulster footballer to lead out his country.

When he takes his team onto the field at Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds on Saturday, he will do so as Ireland’s top scorer in the series with a striking total of 76 and an average of nearly 11 per Test. In the AFL archive on previous series, McDonnell is listed amongst the handful of players designated as their team’s best in every one of his seven Tests to date.

When asked about how he views the Australian challenge he is quick to prioritise the scoring of goals or six pointers as they are in the international game. “We can never really determine what they’re going to do with the ball. We can only get our own game plan up and hope it works. We can hope to work just as hard as them and get the ball up into the score zone and to the shooters because when you have six points for a goal that’s a huge part of this game. If we can get the ball into the likes of Michael Murphy and Benny Coulter then we’ll have a good chance of winning.”

Coulter is an injury concern for the first Test and considered more likely to be available for the second but has a strong scoring record in past series.

By some quirk of fate McDonnell has missed some of the worst incidents of violence to hit the series in the past. He missed the second Test in 2004 before which the Australians launched a pre-meditated attack on Ireland’s best players from the first match and a year later he was unable to make the trip for a series that sounded an ominous overture for what was to follow in the last series played in Ireland, four years ago. He was there for that year’s second-Test schlockfest but is sanguine that the problems of indiscipline that nearly sank the series have been addressed.

“We have to forget about what happened in the past. It was played in a good, sporting manner two years ago . . . certainly some hits went in but they were within the rules – that’s what we want to happen this year. We’re well able to take the hits, as long as they are within the rules, and give them out as well. What happened in the past is now well in the past. It was well documented at the time. I think both teams realise if things like that go on again the series will more or less be put to an end.”

The parallel concern is that in their eagerness to clean up the game, the authorities run the risk of blunting the natural aggression of the Australians and making the series anodyne and uninteresting.

“Not at all,” says McDonnell. “I suppose that one of the biggest skills in the Australian game is the wrap in the tackle and it’s a huge part of this game. Unless you’re really up to speed you’ve got to off-load the ball really quickly. If you’re not you will get tackled and dispossessed. That plays a huge part in the rules series.”

The Ireland captaincy rotates quite frequently. Only John McDermott and Pádraic Joyce (the previous holder of the scoring record) have led their country in two series since 1998. But all of McDonnell’s predecessors were great international players and he fits comfortably into that category. “It’s a huge honour,” he says. “To captain your county team is massive and to captain your country is really a proud moment for me. I’ve played on many teams with great captains and I’ve learned a lot from those guys and hopefully I can carry it onto the field and be victorious this year and lead by example.”

* TIPPERARY CAPTAINEoin Kelly received his sixth Vodafone hurling All Star at the weekend. It was inadvertently reported in Saturday's newspaper that this year's award was his seventh. Kelly's previous All Stars came in 2001, '02, '04, '05 and '06.