McCague holds the line on fixtures

GAA president Sean McCague remains unrepentant about the Irish team's preparations for the International Rules series. Speaking at yesterday's launch at Croke Park of the sponsorship of the National Football and Hurling Leagues by Allianz, McCague said that the fixtures congestion surrounding the series was unavoidable.

"As far as I'm concerned, the preparation this year had a few unfortunate impacts. We hadn't planned on a replayed All-Ireland final, that impacted and there was also a county final fixed from way back in Dublin that couldn't be changed. We can't pay lip service to county finals and then cancel them at the drop of a hat."

Pointing out that recent trends suggest that visiting teams hold the advantage in that they inevitably have more squad time, McCague did not, however, feel that the lack of time spent together was the core element of the Ireland team's lacklustre show.

"The previous Sunday they didn't perform as badly as on the second Sunday so the team management obviously didn't feel that time was needed and they didn't seek it.

"Hindsight makes sages of fools and we can look back now and say it should have happened, maybe so, but going forward, it will be something that will be examined. We didn't have it the previous time we won the series here and no-one suggested that we should have had it and we certainly can't think that everything is a shambles just because we lose a series."

But it was the manner in which Ireland lost the series that was galling to many observers. The management were left in the position of not knowing what players were available until the morning of the match and it was apparent in the first quarter of the second game - when Irish hopes were sunk - that the home team were struggling to establish an understanding. On a day when close on 60,000 people turned out to watch the evolving game, the inadequacies of the home team were glaring.

"Well, you must give credit to the marketing campaign that brought 60,000 people here and there was a great turnout of people who would have loved to see Ireland win," reasoned Mr McCague.

"But all the things that have been referred to here, they weren't pre-planned. Many issues arose - players got injured, pressures of work, many factors, it wasn't just last week that things went wrong."

But if Ireland coach Brian McEniff is to get a fair crack at assembling a team capable of competing with the Australians, the Irish preparation will have to be given more priority.

"Brian will be facilitated in any requests he makes and knowing him as long as I know him, I believe those requests won't be unreasonable. I asked for the weekends leading up to the series to be kept free but I am not a dictator and I respect the decisions of county boards. In Kildare, for instance, there were 100 players involved in the semi-finals and one of them (Glenn Ryan) was in the Irish team. Do you legislate for 99 per cent or for one per cent?"

McCague was at Croke Park for the announcement of the forthcoming Allianz football and hurling leagues. Allianz, the parent company of Church and General, will sponsor the leagues for the next three seasons, preserving a long association with the GAA.

Praising the contribution of Allianz to the GAA's second most important competition, McMcCague again underlined the value of the leagues.

"It has been said that winning the league doesn't matter but you will never hear a winning manager say that. It is only said when a team has done badly and is attempting to deflect criticism from themselves," he pointed out.

He said that there was a strong relationship between application in the league and championship success. Conceding that fixture congestion sometimes gave rise to the suggestion that the leagues were not uppermost in the priorities of the GAA, he stressed that when the games were reaching a climax next spring they would be the sole attraction on the GAA stage.