Ireland v Australia, Rules Test 1, Breffni Park, Saturday 19 October 2013

[Hound]

I don't begrudge anyone who enjoys this for what it is - a now largely asinine and inoffensive bit of fluff and a jolly-up to round out the season. You'd think it was the slaughter of innocents the way some people get their backs up so much about it every year. The only thing that irks me about it, if anything, is that it can't be played full-tilt anymore because of the inequities between  both sets of players and the danger of serious injuries if the Aussies come with intent to throw their weight around like they did under that headbanger Sheedy.

The only true future for this - I mean as a legitimate contest and not the testimonial/exhibition it has now become - would be if enough Irish were playing in Australia at a given time or had returned to Ireland with AFL experience, and we could field a team that could firstly go toe-to-toe with the Aussies in a physical sense and secondly play one of the tests with the Sherrin. Anything other than that and it will remain a heavily diluted, banal piece of flim-flam.

Which is not to say people shouldn't support it and go along if they like it and as long as the interest remains from players and fans, then I say let it continue until the situation changes.

Personally I think its a nonsense to say our lads can't handly a physical contest. They do have a couple of 6' 6" plus monsters, but generally there's not much in it. The time under Sheedy you mentioned was the cowardly dirty play that got us, which the refs' should have clamped down on. The fair hits our lads are well able to give and take.

[rodney trotter]

It's a vanity project for the GAA and the players, which represents the worst of two fantastic sports (sponsored by a hateful rag, I might add).
I doubt we'll see it again after this year.

[/b]

Yes we will, as there is 2 tests next year in Australia, no doubt you will be at the same moaning this time next year.

[screenexile]

I don't see what the outrage is about either. Yes the match wasn't the best on Saturday but I think that was more to do with it being the first game and taking both teams a while to get up to a certain level. The 2nd half was a much more flowing and better game than the first.

As for the "that game on Saturday was shite so it must be dead" argument... you do know that a fair chunk of Championship games this year were complete dross also. Negative, defensive low scoring affairs are quite common in our game so I don't see why a damp squib in the International Rules should be treated any differently.

It's attracting crowds, attracting sponsors, is enjoyed by players so what is the harm in the series?

PS. Anyone talking about a mass exodus of lads to Australia is talking nonsense!

[Jinxy]

I don't see what the outrage is about either. Yes the match wasn't the best on Saturday but I think that was more to do with it being the first game and taking both teams a while to get up to a certain level. The 2nd half was a much more flowing and better game than the first.

As for the "that game on Saturday was shite so it must be dead" argument... you do know that a fair chunk of Championship games this year were complete dross also. Negative, defensive low scoring affairs are quite common in our game so I don't see why a damp squib in the International Rules should be treated any differently.
It's attracting crowds, attracting sponsors, is enjoyed by players so what is the harm in the series?

PS. Anyone talking about a mass exodus of lads to Australia is talking nonsense!

Jesus lads, the prestige that is being attached to this thing by some is embarrassing.
We're drawing a line between it and the championship now?

[screenexile]

I don't see what the outrage is about either. Yes the match wasn't the best on Saturday but I think that was more to do with it being the first game and taking both teams a while to get up to a certain level. The 2nd half was a much more flowing and better game than the first.

As for the "that game on Saturday was shite so it must be dead" argument... you do know that a fair chunk of Championship games this year were complete dross also. Negative, defensive low scoring affairs are quite common in our game so I don't see why a damp squib in the International Rules should be treated any differently.
It's attracting crowds, attracting sponsors, is enjoyed by players so what is the harm in the series?

PS. Anyone talking about a mass exodus of lads to Australia is talking nonsense!

Jesus lads, the prestige that is being attached to this thing by some is embarrassing.
We're drawing a line between it and the championship now?

I'm not comparing it to Championship in terms of prestige just quality of the game. Many are lambasting the poor quality of the game on Saturday night when many Championship games have been poor this year... should we compare it to the League or McKenna Cup, it would probably come out slightly favourably if compared to those games!!

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Dont know if this has already been mentioned but I think it would be more fun/fairer if one test was played with our ball and one test with the AFL ball

[Jinxy]

You get poor games in all sports, for a multitude of reasons.
However, at least there is usually something at stake.
I don't know if you can call something that's played a couple of times a year every couple of years, a 'sport'.
It's a bit like watching International Superstars back in the day.
We feel a bit of pride that a badly sunburnt Pat Spillane is competing with the pro athletes but deep down we know the whole concept is pretty daft.

[sheamy]

Personally I don't like the game at all but respect the players desire to play in it. However, it should not be scheduled during a time when county finals and provincial campaigns are taking place and putting players in difficult positions. Gaelic games should come first. If people want to retain this as a viable exercise, it should not be at the expense of club football/hurling.

[Rossfan]

It's attracting crowds, attracting sponsors, is enjoyed by players so what is the harm in the series?

It's not "pure" enough for some it seems and sure you can't be having a crowd enjoying themselves at a game and as for the players - disgraceful. Typical members of the GPA. They should be going around being miserable like some of the naysayers here.
Someone once referred to a type of person who live life in awful fear and dread that someone somewhere might be enjoying themselves. So they try to ban everything that might be enjoyable.
We seem to have a fair few of them sort lurking here.

[J OGorman]

It's attracting crowds, attracting sponsors, is enjoyed by players so what is the harm in the series?

It's not "pure" enough for some it seems and sure you can't be having a crowd enjoying themselves at a game and as for the players - disgraceful. Typical members of the GPA. They should be going around being miserable like some of the naysayers here.
Someone once referred to a type of person who live life in awful fear and dread that someone somewhere might be enjoying themselves. So they try to ban everything that might be enjoyable.
We seem to have a fair few of them sort lurking here.

of course its enjoyed by the players, they friggin got to stay in a decent hotel for 3 nights.... F.O. bloody C / ziltch / gratis / nada cash required !!! (apparently)

[Jinxy]

Players also enjoy the Railway Cup which many people advocate getting rid of.
My main gripe with the IR series is that it diminishes both codes instead of promoting them.
If an alien landed and you showed him this and said, "This is a combination of gaelic football and aussie rules", he wouldn't be going out of his way to watch either code in its true form.
In actual fact, he'd probably be so disgusted he'd zap you with his ray gun.

[Zulu]

People should really stop comparing the RC with the IR as the arguments for retaining them are fundamentally different.

I don't think the idea is to promote either sport specifically but it has probably done so by drawing attention to the existence of the sports in countries where they wouldn't be overly popular.

I can certainly see why some GAA folk would have no interest but I can't see why there'd be any real objection to a 2 game series in October.

[rodney trotter]

Adam Goodes flew in from Australia yesterday and will be available for the second test. A serious player, Probaly Australias best player when they won the series in 2010.

The likes of jinxy and from the bunker should a put a sock it in, Ye don't like it, stop repeating yourselves.

[GalwayBayBoy]

International rules players pulled up after drunken night out

Date
    October 21, 2013 - 9:30PM


Jon Pierik
Sports writer with The Age

A drunken night out has ended with Australian players hauled before team management and reminded of their responsibilities to an International rules series in Ireland already hanging by a thread.

Several players had a boozy Sunday-night night out at a nightclub in the town of Limerick, before retiring to a room of one of the players at the team's Dromoland Castle hotel in Ennis in the early hours of Monday morning.

Hotel staff asked the hard-partying players to turn down their music about 5am, before having to return 15 minutes later to again insist they desist from making noise. A vase was heard smashing, with others in the building woken up.

It was the second straight night of heavy drinking by the players after they were beaten in the series opener on Saturday night.
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AFL deputy chief executive Gillon McLachlan, AFL operations manager Mark Evans and coach Michael O'Loughlin hauled the players into a team meeting after breakfast, where they were told it was now time to refocus.

The AFL insists the incident was not a major one. No players will be sent home, avoiding the controversy of the 2006 tour when Brendan Fevola was told to pack his bags after an incident with a barman at a Galway pub.

The AFL is expected to officially comment on the events of the night at training later on Monday.

The tourists had made a long bus trip from Cavan to Dromoland Castle in Ennis on Sunday. The team will remain at the castle until Tuesday when it returns to Dublin for the final leg of the tour.

The future of the International rules concept will be discussed at length on Wednesday when McLachlan meets his GAA counterparts.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/international-rules-players-pulled-up-after-drunken-night-out-20131021-2vxcw.html#ixzz2iMZFRaOO

[Hardy]

Adam Goodes flew in from Australia yesterday and will be available for the second test. A serious player, Probaly Australias best player when they won the series in 2010.

The likes of jinxy and from the bunker should a put a sock it in, Ye don't like it, stop repeating yourselves.

Very good Rodney. That's a great formula for debate - only those who agree with me may speak.

I am getting sick of the line that anyone who criticises this crap is some sort of curmudgeon/backwoodsman/puritan who hates to see others enjoying themselves. I love to see people enjoying themselves, whether it's watching good sport, listening to Garth Brooks or watching monster trucks reversing around a big field. It doesn't mean I shouldn't be allowed to say that, in my opinion, Garth Brooks's "music" is unbearable or that I think the whole monster trucks idea is shite and I couldn't bear to watch it.