IRELAND FALL SHORT IN FINAL RULES TEST IN AUSTRALIA
Visitors lose composure, second test and series
ON AND off the field, the sense that the International Rules series is enduring a Groundhog Day existence continues to overwhelm as Australia regained the Cormac McAnallen Cup in Perth yesterday morning by outscoring Ireland 19-9 in the final quarter.
Their strong finish was in keeping with the narrative of their 10point opening-test win in Adelaide, when after trailing by 30-17 at halftime, they won the half that mattered most.
But what made it depressing from an Irish perspective is that this time the circumstances all favoured Joe Kernan’s team.
The evening throw-in at Perth insured that conditions were balmy — a pleasant 21 degrees — rather than the baking heat of South Australia, where the Irish got cooked in 34 degrees.
And while Ireland went to the trouble and expense of flying over Darren Hughes — who repaid that faith with a towering first-half display — to ensure Ireland had a full 23-man match panel. Indeed, they were so blessed with numbers that Karl O’Connell — Hughes’ county team-mate – was dropped.
In contrast, the Aussies, started with just a 19-strong match panel — declining the opportunity to replace the injured Scott Pendlebury — and their numerical deficit became even greater before halftime when Joel Selwood was blackcarded for a dangerous head-high tackle on Mayo’s Chris Barrett.
That tackle lit a fuse – it sparked an old-fashioned melee as the teams left the pitch at half-time — but more importantly it got home fires burning.
Ireland’s lack of composure — although the outstanding Conor McManus was once more exempt from that criticism as he kicked five overs in a top-scoring 16-point haul — was fatal, while Australia made light of shooting with a foreign-shaped spherical ball.
Down the home straight when the series and test were in the fire, Ireland were 41-34 to the good and trailed in the series by three points, but it was the Aussies who held their nerve.
They kicked six overs in the final quarter — Dayne Zorko’s test clincher a thing of beauty in the final minute — while Ireland hit three wides, perfumed in the hybrid game as one-point ‘behinds’. The visitors did all their best work in the first-half policing both the scoring zone Nathan Fyfe, Australian’s best player.
Kerry’s Peter Crowley was deployed on Fyfe and managed to frustrate his running game, but when the AFL star sprouted wings — one jaw-dropping third quarter mark qualifying as the outstanding play of the series — the home team ruled the skies. The ground war belonged to them too, as Ireland wilted and were turned over in the tackle. The pity from manager Kernan’s perspective is that his team got the start that they and the second test needed. One of the astonishing statistics from the opening game in Adelaide was that the Australians had scored more goals than the tourists (2-1); the first time that had happened in 14 years.
Ireland addressed that in the opening quarter with Clare’s Gary Brennan the pivotal figure in both strikes, he scored the first after good work from Hughes and set up Barrett for the second, wiping out Australia’s 10-point first-test advantage, as they led 13-1.
Those goals not only put Ireland back in the series, it raised the stakes for the home team and it showed, too. After a decade when the focus on cleansing the hybrid game of its violent past has bordered on the obsessive, it bared its teeth briefly.
It was in part down to the state of play after winning the opening two quarters, momentum had flipped and Ireland had edged ahead on the strength of their 30-17 lead.
It rattled the hosts and that frustration found articulation in that head-high tackle by Selwood, who would be facing a two-week ban in his own sport for such discretion
But then, off the field, this game can’t afford to show tough love, especially not when the AFL clubs are utterly hostile to the concept.
Their supporters are hardly enamoured either, too few lured from their armchairs even by sentiment in what was the last game to be played at the Subiaco.
This did not come close to the predicted sell-out, just 30,000 paying in — 8,000 less than the 2014 test — which might explain the eagerness to take down the circus tent and pitch it on a new carnival site in the United States next year.
The hope is that a new home will fan the flames of a concept which grows colder by the series. AUSTRALIA: B Goddard (Essendon); S Burgoyne (captain, Hawthorn), R Tarrant (North Melbourne); K Simpson (Carlton); R Laird (Adelaide Crows), L Shuey (West Coast Eagles); D Zorko (Brisbane Lions), S Higgins (North Melbourne); P Dangerfield (Geelong Cats), R Sloane (Adelaide Crows), E Betts (Adelaide Crows), N Fyfe (Fremantle), C Wingard (Port Adelaide), B Brown (North Melbourne), N Jetta (Melbourne). ScoReRS: E Betts (0-2-3), D Zorko (0-3-0) 9 each; C Wingard (0-2-0), R Sloane (0-2-0) 6 each; L Shuey (01-2) 5; Z Merrett (0-1-1), B Brown (0-1-1) 4 each; R Laird (0-1-0), N Fyfe (0-1-0), S Burgoyne 3 each; J Gunston (0-0-1) 1. InTeRchAngeS: T Boak (Port Adelaide), J Gunston (Hawthorn), Z Merrett (Essendon), J Selwood (Geelong Cats). BLAck cARd: J Selwood (second quarter, 17th minute). IReLAnd: N Morgan (Tyrone); B Harrison (Mayo), E Cadogan (Cork), S Powter (Cork); C Sheehan (Cork), Z Tuohy (Geelong Cats, Laois), C Barrett (Mayo); K Feely (Kildare), A O’Shea (captain, Mayo); S Walsh (Galway), D Hughes (Monaghan), N Sludden (Tyrone); P Geaney (Kerry), M Murphy (Donegal), C McManus (Monaghan). InTeRchAngeS: P Crowley (Kerry), K Clarke (Cavan), P Murphy (Kerry), G Brennan (Clare), N Grimley (Armagh), E Smith (Roscommon), N Murphy (Sligo), C Sweeney (Tipperary). ScoReRS: C McManus (0-5-1) 16; G Brennan (1-0-1) 7; C Barrett (1-0-0), M Murphy (0-2-0) 6 each; S Walsh (0-13) 6; C Sheehan (0-1-0), N Murphy (0-1-0) 3 each; Darren Hughes (0-0-1), Paul Murphy (0-0-1), Niall Murphy (0-0-1) 1 each. RefeReeS: M Deegan (Laois), M Stevic (Victoria).