Fired up to bend it like Betts with a round ball

EDDIE Betts can make the Sherrin Australian football sing — but what about the round Gaelic football that is testing so many AFL players to adapt to be at their best for the International Rules Series against the Irish?

“It talks to me,” says Betts, the best handler of the Gaelic round football among the 22 Australians to take on Ireland at Adelaide Oval tomorrow.

“The round ball bends off the boot — and I do like to bend the ball.

“If you have been doing snaps with the Sherrin your whole life, this round ball will curve when you want it to curve. I’ve always said, ‘It is bend it like Betts — not bend it like Beckham’.”

Betts showed his commit- ment to the Australian team — and his determination to hone his skills with the round ball — by joining local Gaelic footballers in training on Wednesday where the Irish squad had its practice session yesterday.

“I went out with one of my old teammates, Anthony Wilson, who played Gaelic football over there and I had a game with the seven-a-side,” he said.

“It was a bit different because you couldn’t tackle, which we can do in International Rules.

“I do like this game. And I do like that round ball.”

Betts, 30, is in his third International Rules series, having represented Australia in 2010 when with Carlton and 2015, as a Crow. He has played five Tests.

And while he is denied any representative football at AFL club level — with Origin having been scrapped in 1999, six years before he became an AFL player at the Blues — Betts appreciates the Australian jumper even more.

“It’s fun,” Betts said of the hybrid AFL-Gaelic game.

“The most important thing I get out of International Rules is the chance to know other players from other clubs.”