The violence in 2006 led to the cancellation of the 2007 series of the Australian Rules/Gaelic Football hybrid but, with a few rule changes, it’s back again. This time, any suspensions will be applied in the next league season of the domestic competition and not limited to international rules.
In order to bring about better relations between the teams, they have been socialising in Perth this week. You won’t want to beat the crap out of someone if you know he’s a good bloke apparently. Unfortunately, the Australian coach from 2 years ago, Kevin Sheedy (who is very proud of his Irish heritage) described the Irish coach Sean Boylan as “a leprechaun” and claimed that Australians will punch if they get kicked first. Boylan is still coaching Ireland but Collingwood’s Mick Malthouse is in charge of Australia.
I don’t know much about the Irish squad – Brisbane’s Colm Begley is the only Australian based player although one of the Irish players is being hotly pursued by Richmond, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs. He has an Australian agent who won’t divulge his identity.
The Australian squad falls someway short of being a best of the AFL. Of the 22 players in the 2008 All Australian side, only 2 are in the 25 man squad – North Melbourne’s Brent Harvey and Adelaide’s Nathan Bock. In fact, Harvey is probably the only player in the squad who can genuinely be said to be one of the AFL’s elite players. Of course, it’s not the same sport and the bigger, less mobile AFL players aren’t suited to International Rules. Nevertheless, most of the AFL’s best players these days are very athletic but are not in the squad. There are some very talented youngsters included, most notably Carlton’s Marc Murphy (the number 1 draft pick in 2005) but it’s a pretty uninspiring selection. Bizarrely, 20% of the squad play for North Melbourne who finished 7th this season and have close to the smallest supporter base in the AFL.
The first test is in Perth on Friday with the second in Melbourne a week later. Surprisingly, the Melbourne game is at the MCG. Last time round, there were 45,000 at Telstra Dome. With a dull looking squad, lots of players from unfashionable clubs (add 3 from Port Adelaide to the 5 from North Melbourne) and the fact nobody has got any money to spend right now and I suspect we could see a lot of empty seats at the MCG.
In order to bring about better relations between the teams, they have been socialising in Perth this week. You won’t want to beat the crap out of someone if you know he’s a good bloke apparently. Unfortunately, the Australian coach from 2 years ago, Kevin Sheedy (who is very proud of his Irish heritage) described the Irish coach Sean Boylan as “a leprechaun” and claimed that Australians will punch if they get kicked first. Boylan is still coaching Ireland but Collingwood’s Mick Malthouse is in charge of Australia.
I don’t know much about the Irish squad – Brisbane’s Colm Begley is the only Australian based player although one of the Irish players is being hotly pursued by Richmond, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs. He has an Australian agent who won’t divulge his identity.
The Australian squad falls someway short of being a best of the AFL. Of the 22 players in the 2008 All Australian side, only 2 are in the 25 man squad – North Melbourne’s Brent Harvey and Adelaide’s Nathan Bock. In fact, Harvey is probably the only player in the squad who can genuinely be said to be one of the AFL’s elite players. Of course, it’s not the same sport and the bigger, less mobile AFL players aren’t suited to International Rules. Nevertheless, most of the AFL’s best players these days are very athletic but are not in the squad. There are some very talented youngsters included, most notably Carlton’s Marc Murphy (the number 1 draft pick in 2005) but it’s a pretty uninspiring selection. Bizarrely, 20% of the squad play for North Melbourne who finished 7th this season and have close to the smallest supporter base in the AFL.
The first test is in Perth on Friday with the second in Melbourne a week later. Surprisingly, the Melbourne game is at the MCG. Last time round, there were 45,000 at Telstra Dome. With a dull looking squad, lots of players from unfashionable clubs (add 3 from Port Adelaide to the 5 from North Melbourne) and the fact nobody has got any money to spend right now and I suspect we could see a lot of empty seats at the MCG.
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