Scientist calls for series to continue

International Rules Debate: Seán Moran talks to Dr Niall Moyna about why engaging with the Aussies is in the GAA's best interests

One of the top sports scientists in Ireland has argued that engagement with the International Rules series is in the best interests of the GAA. Dr Niall Moyna of DCU, who was last night scheduled to speak at a debate in his university on the future of the international game, earlier explained his reasons.

"We can learn an enormous amount from the Australians and I think that got lost in all of the nonsense two weeks ago. In relation to the violence, you pick up a paper on a Monday morning and there's hardly a county in the country where there hasn't been a battle. To lose sight of the whole issue of our ability to adapt because of what happened in the first period is a smokescreen."

Moyna believes the principal message to emerge from the series was Ireland's continuing difficulty coming to terms with the international game and that the failure to compete has its origins in the fundamental principles of coaching.

"The reason the Australians are so much more adaptable is the way they're introducing their game to their young players. They've a completely different approach in that all kids get to play at a very young age and they're not too worried about mistakes being made - it's more about decision making and being adaptable.

"You put Gaelic players into an environment they're not used to, such as the International Rules, and they find it very difficult to adapt. Two years ago Ireland beat Australia by playing Gaelic football so the Aussies decided, 'this is the game they're playing - we're going to make them think and negate what they're good at'. Once they did that, we'd no comeback.

"We don't coach our kids properly. There's an over-emphasis on winning competitions and not developing players and now it's coming home to roost when at senior level you see the ineptitude - the most disappointing aspect for me was the inability to create and exploit space. That's a very simple thing to do and you should be able to do that off the cuff.

"The Aussies were able to adapt between the first and second game, even, whereas our players, unless they played within the confines of our own game, weren't. In order for games to progress - and games are always progressing - we need to look at innovative ways of introducing the games to our players."

As someone who was involved in last spring's junior series in Australia, Moyna feels the experience of engaging with the AFL and Rules players has been of great benefit to the GAA. "We think many of the advances in our game come from our own sports scientists but in fact the Australian involvement has had a tremendous impact on our game, even in our thinking about our rules and speeding up our game. That has come from the last 10, 20 years of involvement with the Aussies as well."

He pinpoints the areas of most concern in terms of coaching and introducing youngsters to Gaelic games. "There are three things in learning: the task, the environment and then the player. We tend to put things in a very stable environment whereas when you actually play a game it's all about instability - you're always making decisions based on a split second and what you see in front of you.

"We're extremely didactic: here's a drill, practise the drill and now play a game - if you're good at the drill you'll be good at the game, instead of allowing our players from a very young age to think and exposing them to lots of different environments.

"Do that and the player becomes more adaptable. We tend to brag about how wonderful our games are but we're very insular in how we approach them."

He accepts that some of the dialogue between the GAA and the AFL can continue to progress even if the international series is abandoned but says that to do so would be running away from Gaelic football's only opportunity to assess itself empirically.

"If we think we can improve and can give our players an outlet, it's very insular to restrict our interaction with Australia. At the end of the day that (the recent series) was the one opportunity we have to gauge how good we are, against someone else, albeit that rules are a compromise - and we failed miserably. We can learn from other sports - sure, but how do we measure?"