IT’S DUBLIN OR QUITS
All-ireland champions to have no players in Oz
HISTORY will be made next month when Ireland compete for the first time in the International Rules series without a current All-ireland winner.
Three-in-a-row All-ireland champions Dublin have given this year’s series the cold shoulder and won’t have any players involved.
Boss Joe Kernan (below) will soon confirm his squad, as well as his captain and vice-captain, for the ties against Australia on November 12 and 18.
But selector Dermot Earley, who has been tracking the Leinster based players, has confirmed there’ll be no Dubs travelling Down Under. Bernard Brogan captained Ireland when they played Australia in 2015 and Stephen Cluxton was the skipper in 2011.
But Earley said that approaches to ‘a lot of the Dublin squad’ this time were all knocked back because of personal or club commitments.
James Mccarthy, a runner for the Footballer of the Year award, revealed last week that he just can’t take three weeks off work to travel to Australia.
It’s the first time since the series began in 1984 that the reigning All-ireland champions won’t be represented.
But Earley insisted it isn’t a major blow and said: “Not at all, I don’t think so. It’s an Irish squad and it should represent the best players in the country and we’ve gone right around all the counties.
“We spent the summer looking at all games so we’ve strong representation from the top teams but we’ve also good representation from some of the less strong teams, if you want to call them that.
“We’ve asked a lot of the Dublin squad to come in but just because of injuries, club commitments, guys just wanting to take a break, I don’t think there will be any Dublin representation on this.
“You do have to understand as well that after a long year guys do sometimes need a break and this may not suit them. That’s understandable.”
Earley himself won’t be available for the second test at Perth’s Domain Stadium on November 18.
The Gaelic Players Association chief is needed in Boston the following day for the Fenway Hurling Classic, the Super 11s tournament which is the brainchild of the GPA.
Earley said: “Joe still wanted me on board and he spoke to Paraic Duffy, and I spoke to Paraic Duffy, just to be sure before I accepted, that they were satisfied with it.”
Dermot Earley was speaking at the announcement of this year’s GPA/WGPA DCU Business School scholarship recipients.