Ireland have major task on their hands to hold Australia

GAELIC GAMES:THE FIRST Test of any international rules series is generally the domain of the crystal ball. But as Ireland and Australia meet tonight for the first time in two years there are some indicators as to what might be expected.

From a negative point of view, the home side is missing some of the most effective performers from the series in Australia two years ago. Kieran Donaghy’s catching and quick hands were invaluable whereas the tireless support and nimble defending of the Tyrone brothers Joe and Justin McMahon were also a feature.

On top of that, then captain Seán Cavanagh was rounding off 2008 as Footballer of the Year and his international performances were in keeping with the accolade. The Tyrone player has a sufficiently strong track record in the international game for his less convincing form this year not to be too much of a concern, but Ireland could do with him at his best.

There are conversely, positives for Anthony Tohill’s side. Available this time is the experienced Tadhg Kennelly, Tommy Walsh, who the management two years ago were very frustrated to lose to club commitments after he had shown very well in the trials, and Martin Clarke, who flared brightly in the AFL with Australian coach Mick Malthouse’s Collingwood.

There is also the reassurance of some of the best players from 2008 still being around. The perennial Graham Canty, three times the GAA player of the series, whose defensive acumen and movement has been an anchor for Ireland down the years, has recovered from the injury that interfered with Cork’s championship-winning campaign.

Ciarán McKeever, who combined really effectively with Canty, is there and if Cavanagh didn’t have the best of seasons, his successor as captain Steven McDonnell has travelled the other way, raising hopes that he will bounce back from what was by his standards a quiet series two years ago.

There is also the prospect of two genuinely exciting newcomers in Bernard Brogan and Michael Murphy, who if they click at the international game will bring serious scoring potential to the table.

Yet it is easy to be pessimistic about the home side’s capacity to deliver back-to-back series wins for the first time in 11 years.

There mightn’t be high-grade data hidden in the rubble of a 93-point warm-up match victory but there was plenty to impress in the way Australia went about the demolition of the UCC-Cork IT selection, which would rank as one of the strongest teams ever fielded for a practice match.

The pace, power and purposefulness of the visitors was clearly visible. Any team that breaks three digits in an international rules match isn’t just monopolising possession but using it really well and the shooting for scores was excellent.

There’s nothing new in that, as Australia have over the course of the 10 series of the modern game outscored Ireland in terms of ‘overs’ or points in Gaelic games and that superiority has intensified in more recent years.

The key breakthrough came five years ago when Kevin Sheedy’s team, devised specifically for the internationals, out-ran and out-classed Ireland before out-scoring them by 45 ‘overs’ to 22 during the course of the two tests that year.

Malthouse took charge in 2008, primarily charged with restoring diplomatic balance after the effects of Sheedy’s less admirable innovations had derailed the series. That was achieved by a well-behaved series that didn’t actually sacrifice that much intensity on the altar of good behaviour.

With that experience under his belt the Collingwood coach has the advantages of having had time to clarify his tactics and of having had the practice time benefits of a travelling team.

One observer of the visitors in Cork reckoned that they improved exponentially with the round ball in the initial few days of practice. As in 2005, they rotate the personnel around the centrefield area and maintain high-tempo attacks with support runners often in pairs offering options.

Their mastery of the inter-change even with its recent restrictions means that the pace is never allowed to drop.

As Sartre said of soccer: “In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team”. The hope is that Ireland can stand their ground and get on with the complicating, but it will be a major task.

Australia will be without David Wojcinski and Travis Varcoe, who picked up injuries in Wednesday’s practice match in Cork.