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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Positives must be taken from big Irish win.
Throughout nearly 22 years of watching Gaelic Games, this writer could safely say that few topics have divided opinion with the GAA community as much as the International Rules Series. It is a concept that has always enthralled me. Primarily due to the fact that our county is intrinsically linked with the hybrid game. But also – and this is a very important point – because the two outings against the representatives of the Australian Football League represent the only opportunity our footballers have to represent their country. The same is true of their opponents.
Peter McDermott, who sadly passed away recently, can be credited with first establishing the link with those on the other side of the world when he took the then All Ireland Champions he was managing Down Under in 1968.
It was fitting then – following a motion from St Colmcille’s stalwart Pat O’Neill – that when a formal series of the new fangled game first took place in 1984, ‘The Man In The Cap’ was in charge of the Irish team.
Since then, Colm O’Rourke and Sean Boylan have both managed their country while Meath players have always been among the finest exponents of the code. Thankfully, with the current engagement between the two nations at the halfway point, the Royal County connection with proceedings is still strong.
Cortown’s Liam Keane is this year’s tour manager, Kevin Reilly will surely be hoping to see more action in Queensland having been an injury concern in the build up to the opening Test while Dunboyne man Martin ‘Mocky’ Regan and Frank Foley from Trim play their parts as part of Anthony Tohill’s backroom team.
The problems which the jousts between the two countries in this code have encountered over the years have been well documented. Every cloud has a silver lining though and, thankfully, the dark day when Graham Geraghty was lucky to escape serious injury at Croke Park marked something of a watershed for the IRS. It had to, of course, to ensure the thing survived, but, since that day, the brutal physicality seems to have been eliminated from the contests.
How fitting it was, then, that after a recession necessitated break, that the Irish team of 2011 produced the best display ever by such a group in the first game of the series. Surely there could have been a more fitting tribute to that aspect of the extraordinary contribution made to the Association by the former Donaghmore and Navan O’Mahonys clubman.
Opponents of the autumnal event will of course point to the landslide nature of the Irish win (80-36), the Australians’ obvious problems with the round ball, seemingly limited knowledge of the rules and an attendance of only close to 23,000 as reasons why it has no future. There are positive factors to be taken from the Irish display in Act One as well, though, if you want to see them.
This was the best display in Irish team has produced in the hybrid game since it began 27 years ago. Not only in terms of their use of the ball, the scoring exploits of the likes of Steven McDonnell and Michael Murphy and Leighton Glynn, or even the indelible influence of Ireland’s AFL based players. Most fundamentally though, what stood was the manner in which the boys in green dealt with the tackle and the physical nature of the game. Traditionally, it is an area where they have struggled but the work which Kieran McGeeney has done in this area is very evident.
There is no escaping the fact that this is a rather weak Australian selection. On at least two occasions during the match, Tohill’s side let by a clear 30 points. Yet, goalkeeping problems aside, the improvement in the hosts’ mastering of matters as the match went on was quite obvious. In matches like this in the past, 36 points would have been enough to leave the chasing side with at least a fair chance of catching up the second day.
That seems unlikely this time round, but, rather than focus on the shortcomings of the victims and use same as a means to at least try and sound the death knell for the hybrid game, the focus should be on the positives which must be taken from this big Irish win.
The Australian management admitted afterwards that they were surprised by the physicality of their foes and that they had been ‘too nice’. They are a proud nation who do not like losing (nobody does) and it’s fairly safe to assume we’ll see a fairly different affair tomorrow morning. It’s highly likely that Ireland will go on to reclaim the Cormac McAnallen Cup but a more competitive showing from the locals would go some way at least to securing the future of the International Rules Series.
What is abundantly clear, however, is how much it means to the players. There is no greater honour than representing your country and the players will always make themselves available to take part therein. More could be done in certain places to facilitate them in doing so too, but that’s a story for another day.
Finally, there’s another factor here – the Cormac McAnallen Cup. What ever happened to the Tommy Murphy Cup when the competition to honour the Laois legend was dispensed with? Without our past we would have no present or future. If for no other reason than to honour the legacy and memory of someone who influenced and inspired us but has passed on, something like the IRS is worth persisting with no matter how unpopular it might be with some.
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