Australia forced to delay naming panel

INTERNATIONAL RULES:AUSTRALIA WILL have to delay the announcement of their panel for next month's international rules series in Ireland after the AFL grand final ended in a draw at the weekend.

Collingwood were caught by St Kilda’s second-half comeback and the final ended in a draw for the first time since 1977 and only the third time in the history of Australian rules. With interest focused on the replay – 40,000 tickets were sold in five hours yesterday – there hasn’t been any time for international preparations. There have been criticisms of the need for a replay, with prominent figures such as Leigh Matthews, who was Australia coach in the first of the resumed series back in 1998, believing grand finals should be resolved on the day.

“We just have to deal with it because it’s not going to change,” says AFL PRO Patrick Keane. “There’s a little bit of discussion but the AFL Commission is very clear that that’s what we do in our game and we don’t care if other games do it differently.”

The problem for the international series isn’t just that a number of players from both clubs would be under consideration to travel to Ireland but that the management is drawn from Collingwood.

Head coach Mick Malthouse, in his 27th year with the club, is the Australia coach and two years ago during his first series he was assisted by Nathan Buckley, who is also one of the coaching staff at Collingwood and who will take over from Malthouse in two years.

“It won’t be any earlier than Tuesday of next week,” says Keane of the timetable for the announcement of the travelling panel. “We have to wait to check the fitness of players after the grand final.”

Although the management of the team hasn’t been finalised no significant change is expected. “As of now unless we hear anything different Nathan Buckley will be available but we haven’t made any contact with them about this. It really hasn’t been on the radar because of the lead-up to the grand final.”

Details of Ireland’s preparations and manager Anthony Tohill’s preliminary selections are expected to be announced by the GAA next week.