THE GAME THEY COULDN’T KILL
Thirty years ago, the AFL trialled an experimental game GAA and the which has managed to survive up to now to the surprise of some of its pioneers who spoke to Philip Lanigan and Mark Gallagher
NOBODY KNEW what to expect before that first meeting in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on 21 October, 1984. Éamonn Young, the former Cork player, was one of the selectors, and on the previous evening, at the end of the team meeting, he showed us how to stand for the National Anthem before the start of the game. Nobody said anything. When he was finished someone at the back asked ‘Would you mind showing us that again?’ There was, of course, some sniggering at the back of the room and stiff faces at the front. However, everyone was smiling the following afternoon, in the cramped dressing-rooms (with some of the team togging out in the jacks). There were smiles all round. Eoin Liston was the life of the party atmosphere, but everybody was in good form. They had never played with a round ball in their lives, and there’s no net in sight in Australian Rules football, so it had to be easy.
Mick Lyons was stretchered off the field after a couple of minutes, after leaving his jaw on the end of one of the most blatant uppercuts I had ever seen. And, the rest was an unfortunate piece of sporting history. The Australians won 70-57, but representatives from both sides met fortyeight hours later to try to concoct some set of rules which would allow the GAA and Australian Rules football to liveli ini each other’s boots, without standing on each other’s toes all the time. I’d watch most of the game from the sideline. In the second quarter I was brought on at left-half forward, and I didn’t get a touch of the ball for ten minutes. I was taken off at half-time, but about a minute from the finish, Liam Sammon told me to go back on. ‘Run everywhere,’ he ordered. My final memory of the 1984 series was acted out in the lobby of Jury’s Hotel in Cork shortly after midnight. We were leaving and longing to have the journey over us, to have the entire experience at our backs. There were a large number of people still in the lobby at that hour, laughing at us, and at the entire Irish team, telling us we should be ashamed of ourselves. We talked the whole way home, about what had happened and what we had learned. We agreed it would be different the following Sunday.
– LIAM HAYES Out of Our Skins, 1992
MICK LYONS
WE KNEW that Peter McDermott went out there with Mattie Kerrigan and the Meath team in ’67 but the Meath connection wasn’t something that was a factor. I’d say the Aussies looked down on us a little bit, looked on it as a different level to what they were normally used to. I can’t remember how long I lasted in the first Test but it wasn’t long. Knocked out. Lost two chunks out of the back two teeth. All I remember is waking up in the dressing room. Mark Lee was the fella.
I marked him in the next one – I wouldn’t have been expecting an apology. Sure, there was skirmishes all over the place. That’s what was expected back then; that’s what the crowd came to see!
For 30 players in Ireland, it’s fantastic. To represent your country is brilliant. You’re looking at lads and planning their downfall, seeing how you match up. I have great memories of being out there and playing under Kevin Heffernan.
He never left anything to chance. He didn’t go out saying ‘this might happen’ – everything was planned for. But I think it would be better at this stage to go to America, promote our own games.
RICHIE CONNOR
THERE WERE two preparation games played, one at Croke Park and one I think in Ballinasloe, both played in a relaxed atmosphere. Not a bit of a hint of what was to come.
I remember there was a hurling exhibition on before the game in Galway. When we were having a cup of tea after, the Aussies couldn’t get over the amount of the hurlers who were missing their front teeth!
When we went on to Cork, it was obvious from the time the ball was thrown in, there was a different attitude completely from them. There was needling all over the place. It caught us off guard.
The numbers did increase in terms of spectators. I suppose that will always happen if there is the prospect of a row!
The tackle turned out to be a disaster because in Gaelic football there was no real tackle whereas in Aussie Rules you could bring a fella down. We were sitting ducks really.
JIMMY KERRIGAN
RIGHT from the start at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, every time you gave a ball you were buried. We weren’t used to the tackle; they went in very hard and we reacted.
I remember distinctly that day if a ball broke and we went to draw on it without rising, they’d go mad altogether.
We were in a battle right from the start. Something happened to me and I reacted like I would normally in a match – I made to have a swipe at the fella. Well Jesus when I did, two or three fellas jumped in on top of me and started flaking away.
I reckon the night before the game they made up their minds that they weren’t going to take any crap from us. We weren’t ready for it really.
It’s different when you’re on tour. Like when we went out in ’86, we were ready for it.
We trained once a week here,it was all very nice. Then this happened. We weren’t prepared for it all.
In the second Test that we won, we played much more as a team. It was mentioned in the dressing room: ‘Be ready for whatever happens.’ We wanted to win at all costs. And it was a great game – a bit of fighting alright.
We really wanted to win the third Test then.
When I was picked I was delighted. It was a fantastic honour to represent Ireland and we were all very disappointed to lose the series.
I ran to help Mick Lyons who was on the ground but Mark Lee hit me with a left hook
DERMOT McNICHOLL
IT WAS a filthy day down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. I was still at school at the time and had never experienced anything like that physicality. But I went on to play in Australia for two years, and what the Aussies did in Cork that day, that had nothing to do with their code either. I know from playing it that Australian Rules is a very disciplined game.
In all my time in Australia, I never witnessed or was part of anything like what went on in Cork. It was a very definite plan to upset us. But we regrouped and won the second Test, using our speed and Gaelic skills, which is what we always planned to do.
Our skills and speed were the advantage we had over the Australians and that is why they approached the game the way they did. When we went to Australia two years later, Kevin Heffernan, in fairness to him, realised we needed a bigger player and picked his squad accordingly.
LIAM TIERNEY
LONGFORD weren’t going well at the time but we managed to draw with Offaly in the Championship that year. The replay was in Croke Park and I played fairly well and got called up. I was determined to make the most of the opportunity. I was quite mobile so the game suited me.
The biggest lesson I took from that first Test was to get rid of the ball as quickly as you could because if you held onto the ball for any length of time, you were going to get hit.
The fascinating thing was that the Aussies were so cordial off the field, but once they got into that dressing-room, they turned into different animals.
I had never come across anything as intense as that before and it meant so much to the Aussies, you could see the elation when they won the final Test in Croke Park.
The Aussie goalkeeper, Gary McInitosh, broke Barney Rock’s nose and he was a volatile character. He was a bit of a wrecking ball and played to the crowd. But we had a few of our own – Mick Lyons and PJ Buckley both gave as good as they got, especially down in Cork.
PJ BUCKLEY I THRIVED on the physical contact but some of the better ballplayers on our team, stylists – for want of a better word – were a bit more apprehensive.
I was half-back down in Cork. When we lined up before throw-in, I was delighted when I saw the Aussie lad I was marking come towards me, Allen Daniels, because he was the same size as me. Some of the Aussies were huge.
The first thing Daniels said to me: ‘I am going to take your head off your f***in shoulders, mate.’ That unnerved me. I thought it was better to get retaliation in first, so I hit him a dig as soon as the ball was throw in.
Mark Lee was their full-forward. He was a huge man. I saw he had Mick Lyons on the ground at one stage. So I ran over to help Mick out and Lee caught me with a left hook.
It was an enjoyable experience, one I will never forget. And great to play with all kinds of different players from all over the country – we had some cracking ball players, the likes of Barney Rock and Greg Blaney and young Dermot McNicholl from Derry. But they had a cutting edge too, you needed to have against the Australians – you couldn’t flinch or draw back against those boys.
SéAMUS McHUGH
IT WAS the first time that Gaelic players represented Ireland on a national level, and it was a great thrill to look up at the scoreboard in Cork or Croke Park and see Ireland there.
John Todd, the Aussie coach,
I hit him a dig as soon as the ball was thrown in
wanted them to go out and set the tone, physically. The funny thing was when we were down in Australia in 1986, it was Todd who requested a meeting with Heffo (Kevin Heffernan) asking to tone things down after the first Test. Heffo had told us if there was a melee, to draw on the ball and the Aussies weren’t used to that.
The first Test in Cork was the defining one. Things calmed down after that, we tried to use the ball a bit faster.
What went on in that first Test, though, was like nothing I experienced on a field. A lot’s said about the 1983 All-Ireland final, but as bad as things got between ourselves and Dublin, it was child’s play compared to what the Aussies did in Cork – lads like Gary McIntoish and Mark Lee, they wouldn’t see out the game nowadays.