[FONT=Arial, Verdana, Arial]Streakers provide more entertainment than this paltry excuse for a game[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial]
Monday October 30th 2006[/FONT]
FOR several weeks we have been told by all the important people in the GAA that another 'dirty' series between Ireland and Australia would spell the end of the whole affair.
The GAA, which runs such a clean house in hurling and football, could not allow its pristine players to be corrupted by the 'dirty' tactics of those uncouth and professional Australians.
Well, after sitting through Saturday's game in Galway, it seems to me that it is not roughhouse tactics, clothesline tackles or even criticism from Mickey Harte that is likely to kill the competition, but sheer boredom.
This was a travesty of a game between the elite performers of two of the great football codes, Gaelic and Australian Rules. The entertainment value can best be summed up by stating that, apart from Ireland's couple of match-winning scores in the final minute, the biggest crowd reactions came for the activities of a several jackasses in various stages of streaking around the pitch and a small terrier dog who entertained the fans during the national anthems.
Ineffective
It's hard to credit that so many talented footballers could be so ineffective and so lacking in flair and imagination. Yet, on reflection, maybe it is not that surprising because the whole nature of these games has changed.
Their popularity up to now has been based on two main criteria - the possibility of a few big bust-ups and the free-flowing nature of the games because of the loose marking that inevitably followed when the amalgamation of two different types of football is attempted.
On the evidence of what we saw in Galway, both these drawing powers have been eliminated from the game and what we are left with is a travesty. Largely missing were most of the great skills - such as the mark from the Aussies, points on the run from the Irish, accurate foot-passing from both sides and plain honest blood and guts effort.
Intimidated
Maybe the players were intimidated by all the threats made by Irish officials about the consequences of a recurrence of foul play. If so, this was as effective a way as any of killing the series because, make no mistake, the biggest attraction for Irish fans was the physical aspect of the matches.
Tactics have taken over from spontaneity in both camps and players are carrying out elaborate rehearsed ploys at the expense of using their own ideas and playing to their own individual strengths.
How else can one explain the failure of the Irish players to score more easy three-pointers which were there for the taking? And why was the Irish team not capable of setting up and scoring three or four goals, bearing in mind that the man-marking by their opponents was away less rigid than we see in the GAA championship season?
I have heard manager after manager complain, when asked about the scarcity of goals in GAA games, that the marking is too tight these days, as if players of former years were never marked like that.
Well, the Aussies certainly did not mark tight - like you get in the Ulster championship. Yet, the single Irish goal did not come until the very last minute.
Inevitably the curse of the packed defences reared its ugly head on Saturday. For the greater part of the game, Ireland played with just three forwards in the Australian half of the field as the rest of the team packed the backline in order to stop the Aussies achieving their trademark marks in front of the Ireland goal area.
The tactic worked, even though it made a mockery of the free-flowing image of this particular series.
The Irish players also concentrated on preventing the Aussies talking clean marks all over the field by sticking in a hand or fist to break the ball away thereby depriving us of seeing many spectacular marks.
Of course, this is just imitating what we see in Gaelic football where the high fielders are being thwarted by lesser players who break the dropping ball away. That apparently is regarded by modern-day coaches as 'progress.' They should ask Mick O'Connell about that.
The poor quality of the Australian kicking was understandable because this was the first game of this type for 60 per cent of their players and we can rest assured that there will be a big improvement next Sunday in that regard. But there is no such excuse for those Irish players who kicked ball after ball into the hands of the Aussie goalkeeper.
The Aussies were better in short dashes to win 50-50 balls - showing that, despite all the training Irish players do, the professionals still have the extra edge in the speed stakes.
Despite the mediocrity of the play, it was a great international occasion in Galway. A packed house for the first floodlit game in the stadium and a fairytale finish for Ireland, with local hero Joe Bergin scoring Ireland's only goal helped to appease many previously disgruntled fans.
The temporary floodlights installed for this game looked okay but, as the game wore on, I got the impression that they were not as satisfactory as the Australian players in particular are accustomed to because there was an inordinate amount of fumbling of the low balls by both sides.
It will be interesting see how those players perform in that regard in daylight next Sunday. We will have the biggest crowd ever to watch a compromise rules game at Croke Park and, with Ireland leading by eight points and the Aussies working hard for most of this week at their game, it should be a really great occasion - no matter what the detractors may say.
Realistic
I hope the game is more free-flowing and the tackling more realistic than the 'excuse me, after you sir,' sort of stuff we got on Saturday night.
Otherwise we will have to wait for a rugby international in Croker next Spring to see our Irish manhood respond to physical aggression from the foreigner and that would be a poor day for the GAA.
One of the rule changes made for this year's games was very successful. That was the decision to punish with a yellow card any player who rushed in when two other players were having a disagreement.
On several occasions I noticed players from both sides, particularly Ireland, gritting their teeth and standing back when normally they would have jumped in with all guns blazing. I wonder why we can have such a rule for compromise games and yet will not bring it into Gaelic football and hurling where it is badly needed?
