INTERNATIONAL RULES NEWS:THE PROSPECT of Croke Park being much more than half full for Saturday's second International Rules test seems unlikely after the Australians reiterated their intention to play fairly and squarely by the rules – without even a hint of aggressive or rough play.
The expectation now is that a crowd of around 40,000 might be the best the GAA could hope for, even if the series is still in the balance. The 30, 117 that showed up at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick last Saturday evening was below expectations, and there are reports that some of them actually left before the end.
There’s no denying the lack of bite to the opening Test, bar perhaps the last five minutes, if only because Ireland raised something of a scoring spurt. The Australians arrived in Dublin on Monday and will be based all week at a city centre hotel, and according to team press officer Patrick Keane, they fully intend adopting the same “hands-off” tactics in Croke Park, under coach Michael Malthouse, even if many people were surprised at just how tame the whole thing proved.
“We knew the lack of physical contact wasn’t an issue in 2008, and we haven’t worried about it this year either,” said Keane. “We just go out and play. Michael Malthouse has a very clear direction on how the game will be played, since he took over the job, and we play like that in every match he’s coached. We had two narrow losses last time, and now a narrow win. So we’ve played the same way every time under him.”
The Australians, it seems, have no great regrets either at allowing Ireland back into the game in the closing stages of the final quarter:
“No one can possibly expect to dominate the whole 72 minutes,” added Keane. “There will always be periods where Ireland play well, and the issue is how you absorb it. At the end of the game we were in front, by seven points. If you’d have said to us at the start we’d win by seven points we’d have taken that.
“There were periods of time when we led by more, and periods as well when Ireland started to play well, but if you look at it as a 72-minute contest we’re still seven points up. If we only look at 15 minutes in the second quarter then yeah we could have won by 40, and equally if you look at the last 10 minutes, we could have lost by 15. But in the end we have the lead, and that’s very good for us.”
Given the near complete absence of any real physical contact in Saturday’s game, it’s hardly surprising neither the Australians nor the Irish have any fresh injury concerns. David Wojcinski and Travis Varcoe were named in the Australian team for the Limerick Test, but didn’t actually feature after sustaining ankle and shoulder injuries respectively in the practice game against the Cork students the previous Wednesday, and both should be fine for this Saturday.
“Both players are running. We’re pretty hopeful that if they come through the session in Croke Park tomorrow then they’ll be available as a selection option. They were selected, but in the end we didn’t put them onto the park, on the view we didn’t want to take any risks, and they weren’t quite 100 per cent. So we suited them up, and then decided not to use them.
“But everybody else came out of Saturday’s game fine, because basically it was a non-contact game. It was just the running issue, really, with the two of them, so hopefully if we get them available we’ll have all 22 to pick from. So really we’re doing pretty good.”
Ireland coach Anthony Tohill is likely to make a couple of adjustments to his playing panel. Cork’s Michael Shields and Down captain Benny Coulter both missed out on the first Test, as Shields was on club duty, and Coulter was nursing a hamstring. Kildare defender Emmett Bolton and Offaly attacker Niall McNamee came in as replacements, but it seems one or both of Shields and Coulter will return. Tohill will consider his options later today when the team gather in the Carton House in Maynooth for their build-up to Saturday’s game, which like last week has a 7pm start.
The curtain-raiserto Saturday's game will be the annual hurling/shinty match with Scotland, and that might actually prove more entertaining. Ireland senior manager Joe Dooley announced his panel yesterday, and includes Kilkenny's Tommy Walsh, who will captain the team.
IRELAND(senior hurling/shinty panel): Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny, capt), Paul Dermody (Kildare), Stephen Clynch (Meath), Shane Dooley (Offaly), Aaron Graffin (Antrim), Willie Hyland (Laois), Gareth Johnston (Down), Darren McCormack (Westmeath), Paul McCormack (Armagh), Barry McFall (Antrim), Patrick Horgan (Cork), Neil McManus (Antrim), Tom Murnane (Kerry), Brendan Murtagh (Westmeath), Eoin Nolan (Carlow), Andrew O'Brien (Wicklow), John Rowney (Laois), Jackie Tyrrell (Kilkenny).
