O'Brien pleased with progress

INTERNATIONAL RULES:IRELAND'S INTERNATIONAL rules preparations are well advanced with an announcement of the final panel due the week after next. This year's series takes place next month under lights in Limerick's Gaelic Grounds and Croke Park.

“It’s been going very well,” according to Ireland selector and former Wicklow All Star Kevin O’Brien. “We’ve been thrilled with the commitment and application of all of the players. Training began at the end of August – we kept it until the All-Ireland semi-finals were over.

“Since then we’ve been having sessions at Croke Park on Friday evenings and DCU on Saturday mornings.” Although the Cork and Down players – including former AFL players Michael Shields and Martin Clarke – are now available after the All-Ireland final and have been involved, the current busy club schedules are preventing full turnouts each week.

The selection process will move to the next phase after today’s and tomorrow’s training.

“After this weekend,” says O’Brien, “we’ll be taking 30-plus players to Limerick for a few days preparation and trial matches and after that we’ll make the final cut to 23 for the Test panel. We need the extra players for the matches and also to fill in for players who might have club commitments or short-term injuries.

“One of the things we decided to do was not to bring a guy in just for one session and then drop him. All of the players we’ve invited to take part have got at least three or four trials because things can pass a player by on a given day.”

O’Brien was involved in the series when he travelled to Australia as part of Eugene McGee’s panel for the 1990 Test series, won 2-1 by Ireland. He finished the series just two points adrift of top scorer, Meath’s Bernard Flynn.

He remembers the experience well and compares the international game then and now.

“On television (TG4, who have the rights to this year’s series, have recently been showing Tests from years gone by) it looks a lot faster nowadays. The game was probably more robust back then even though we had good footballers. For me it was a real eye-opener, a great education on how fit and well prepared you could be because we were effectively full-time footballers over there. Those lessons stayed with me for the rest of my career.”