INTERNATIONAL RULES:THE RELATIVELY thrilling climax to the International Rules series on Saturday night has not only sustained Irish interest – at least until next year – but appears to have sustained Australian interest too.
Reaction in the Australian press has been largely positive, and not just because of their narrow win, on an aggregate score of 102 to 92. And the Australian Football League (AFL) have reiterated their interest in extending the term of manager Mick Malthouse.
The series will resume in Australia next year, on October 21st and October 28th, but will then have a one-year break, before resuming again in Ireland in 2013 and in Australian in 2014.
However, Malthouse’s two-series term as manager ended in Croke Park, while Ireland manager Anthony Tohill will take charge again in 2011, as his two-series term only began this year.
According to the Melbourne-based The Age, the AFL are keenly considering keeping Malthouse in charge, and the manager appears open to that.
“It may well be an AFL decision,” he said, “but it’s also going to be consulted with the coaches’ association. I know from previous meetings with the coaches’ association that they’re quite prepared for it to be spread around, particularly with the assistant coaches as well.”
Tohill will continue in his role to the end of the 2011 series, along with selectors Eoin Liston (Kerry), Kevin O’Brien (Wicklow) and Seán Óg de Paor (Galway).
One of the reasons the AFL are keen to keep Malthouse in charge is that he’s helped ensure the game is played in the proper spirit, and there’s no doubt the Australians were on their best behaviour in both Croke Park and in Limerick the previous Saturday.
The Sydney Morning Herald praised the game as the “Irish again produced a storming finish with 14 unanswered points in the final term in front of 61,842 fans before the tourists steadied on a cool, clear night”.
The AFL website reported that “after a week of critical analysis by the local media, the Irish team responded with a more attacking and courageous style of play and really took it up to Australia in the first half”.
In the meantime, Malthouse has made a few suggestions as to how the series might be improved, starting with the number of interchange players allowed, which is currently capped at 10.
“I would love to have more interchange rotations, and this is not necessarily for the game, this is for the boys who come 20-odd thousand miles to sit on a bench and play 15, 20 minutes of the game. I feel sorry for them, but it’s within the rules that have been structured.
“I’d like to think they have the opportunity to play over half the game, because it’s a long way to come and it’s a lot of sacrifices. Our players have 60 or 70 days off, and this series is part of their days off before they go into a very vigorous pre-season campaign.”
Another recommendation came from the AFL website, which declared that “all 61,842 fans could have been forgiven for diving for cover at the start and end of each quarter when the siren sounded. The hooter sounded more like an air raid warning and had the visiting media looking for the nearest exit the first time it was blasted across the PA”.
The GAA and AFL originally agreed a break year to prevent any staleness from creeping into the series, but it remains to be seen if that “gap” year in 2012 doesn’t have the opposite effect, and instead of sustaining interest in the series, helps to kill it off.
