by Shea Leonard
After a break of four years, International Rules football returns to Irish shores with the jury still out on the meaningfulness of the hybrid game.
Some, like Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, see little merit in the series, and believe that it acts as a shop window for Australian Football League clubs to throw an eye over Irish talent.
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Others view it as the only opportunity for Gaelic football’s elite players to represent their country and to showcase some of the game’s skills to an international audience.
Whatever your views on the game, there is no doubting that it has endured a few troubling years.
The series was not played in 2007 after the Australian team that visited Ireland the previous year lost the run of themselves in the physical stakes, most notably with Danyle Pearce’s dangerous neck-high challenge on Graham Geraghty at Croke Park in the Second Test.
An Irish side made a successful journey Down Under two years ago in a series that seemed to suggest that there was a future for the international outlet.
But Australia’s decision not to make the return trip in 2009, with the AFL using a flimsy excuse about financial issues, threw fresh doubt over the two associations’ ability to maintain a healthy relationship.
But it seems that the storms have passed and another historic chapter in the history of International Rules will be written when Páirc na Gael in Limerick hosts this year’s First Test.
There has been a noticeably low-key build-up to Saturday’s game, with the only scandal coming from the absence of any current Kerry players from the Irish squad. Manager Anthony Tohill has denied this is due to a vendetta against the Kingdom’s stars, and Paul Galvin in particular.
Tohill was never going to please everyone with his squad selection, and to be fair to the former Derry star, he seems to have chosen on the basis of how players did in trial games and not on reputation.
Current AFL players Tadhg Kennelly and Tommy Walsh are included (two Kerrymen, incidentally), along with six other players who have experience with the oval ball. It is plain to see the logic Tohill has used here, and he will be hoping those eight players can pass on some useful tips of how the Aussies go about their business to the greener members of the Irish panel.
Australia had an impressive win over a combined Cork colleges side during the week. And although the opposition was not of the highest order, a scoreline of 105-12 indicates that the Australians are serious about winning the Cormac McAnallen Cup for the first time since 2006.
Australian manager Mick Malthouse has gone with a smaller and more mobile side than his predecessor Kevin Sheedy did, and the Aussie camp has been making all the right noises about approaching the series in the right manner: physical, but no overly so.
The game at Páirc Uí Rinn saw Jack Riewoldt and Brad Greene emerge as Australia’s main target men, with the pair scoring 39 of the visitors’ 105 points between them.
It will be interesting to see if Tohill and his management team attempt to devise a plan to limit the effectiveness of Riewoldt and Greene.
To be honest, it is nigh on impossible to predict how this First Test will pan out, especially with the two-year gap since the last games.
However, history shows that the side who wins the First Test is, unsurprisingly, the more likely to win the series outright.
Ireland won the first Test in 2006 in Salthill before being thumped (literally) in Croke Park a week later. But the provincial nature of the Limerick venue may work in Ireland’s favour, just as it did four years ago.
Verdict: Ireland 55-48 Australia
