Don't look away - the International Rules series deserves better

By John Fogarty

SPEAKING yesterday, Ireland coach Anthony Tohill was asked to outline the risks facing the International Rules series. He came up with three.

The violence was the first on his mind. Going down that route again, he says, and the initiative is kaput.

He also referred to apathy from players and spectators but the most pertinent peril he highlighted was the possibility of the series becoming uncompetitive.

“Another risk is that one country gets too good at it. At the minute it doesn’t look like we’re on that journey,” warned Tohill.

With three series wins for Ireland from the last eight since 2000, it doesn’t seem to be that way but there were worrying signs last year Australia may be about to turn the screw.

After all, they have found it easier to put back-to-back series victories together, doing it twice in that period.

Ireland have to go back to 1999 to find the last time they retained the title.

The Australian personnel have changed significantly since Adam Goodes guided them to victories in Limerick and Dublin but generally they don’t look as awkward with the round ball anymore.

On that very point, we fully understand why so many find it difficult to warm to International Rules.

Asking the most genuine of sportsmen to perform skills that are unfamiliar to their native games (Australia with the ball, Ireland with the tackle) can often be cringeworthy.

But in improving their ball skills to the extent that they bettered Ireland’s use of it last year, Australia have shown that it doesn’t have to look so embarrassing.

As Tohill admitted:  “Australia last year were as good as I’ve seen them. It used to be that when we played them back in the late 1990s and early 2000s you could give them 60 or 70% of possession because you knew they weren’t going to translate that into scores.”

In return, Ireland have been busy attempting to better themselves at tackling, one of the Australians’ greatest strengths.

Kieran McGeeney’s appointment as selector with a primary focus on the skill of bringing down an opponent between the shoulders and hips has been a shrewd one.

But what is perhaps most encouraging is Tohill has acknowledged not all of his players are cut out to tackle. Accepting that is half the battle won. That job will fall to a certain group of players.

The others, meanwhile, have been given the duty of playing to their strengths, which shouldn’t be neglected in a game where whoever has the ball is king but most importantly is owned by us.

As this writer said on the Irish Examiner sports podcast last week, the International Rules series takes a mirror to our game and shows us its positives and negatives.

Last year, we realised how in just two short years how quickly our ball skills had deteriorated. From 2008 to ’10 the possession game had moved from having a tight to a vice-like grip on Gaelic football and was shown up in last year’s series.

With the rise of Donegal this past summer, the ability to retain the ball is even more acute with the hand-pass the prevalent skill which doesn’t augur well in International Rules where quick transfer is paramount.

If the International Rules continue to show us where we are right and wrong in our own game then it is worth something to us.

If that’s the case, the newly-formed standing playing rules committee might decide to meet following respective series to assess just where we can improve Gaelic football.

There is probably no better test than against professionals and the GAA have certainly not been afraid to take a leaf out of the AFL’s book on other matters such as match presentation and player welfare.

The future of the International Rules isn’t dependent on the game becoming more aesthetically pleasing or possessing more of a bite physically as opposed to a chew.

It’s never going to be to everybody’s taste. It most certainly has issues but fundamentally it is a sport.

“We have to make sure that we don’t under our stewardship allow the series to go in one direction so this is a hugely important series,” emphasised Tohill.

As long as the odds are even and Ireland’s amateurs are seen to be able to put it up to their professional cousins while learning something about themselves then it will survive.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/1jaXIOJ8EhY/post.aspx

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