World Footy News

Sporting chess reached another high last night as the Irish held back a fast advancing Australian side to win by one point the first International Rules match, 45-44, before a crowd of 35,000 at an occasionally wet Subiaco.

As expected, with superior understanding of the floating round ball, the Irish went out to a big lead early, particularly finding the net for 6 points which the Australians had trouble doing. However, by half time, aided by superior fitness, the Australians had brought the score back to a one point deficit of 18-19. In the last quarter the Irish raced to 45, looking like a match winning lead. The Australians began to rally, but then found themselves one man short after Campbell Brown’s half shirt-front, and seemingly raised elbow, on Finian Hanley had him sent off. The Irish defended the lead, with Australia scoring repeatedly, including 3 point ‘overs’ at 10, 11 minutes and then at 14 minutes, cutting a deficit which had been 31-45 to 1 point, on 44.

While many Australians (arrogantly, some Indian cricket observers might also suggest) assumed that the professional Australians would overrun the Irish amateurs, the Irish held out to win.

Those who puff up their macho chests, and assume that the sport is all Aussie dominance, based on recent series, forget the history. The dominant team has often been the travelling team, due to fuller training and esprit de corps. As Andrew Demetriou pointed out at half time the scores over the years have been 14 wins each and two draws.

The enthusiastic Subiaco crowd loved the game as they did in a series in the last century, and it has been a long time between drinks.

Commentator and Irish team adviser, Tadhg Kennelly, of the Sydney Swans, was not playing for Ireland due to a shoulder operation. He wondered if the Australians should have selected some bigger forwards, rather than going for small men, as in David Rodan, captain and fifth series player, Brent Harvey, Marc Murphy, Daniel Wells and Scott Thompson.

Surprisingly, the Irish out-marked the Australians, taking big chest marks in part because of the use of their bodies and superior ability to read the floating ball in the Perth wind.

Conditions favoured both sides: the Australians because it was warm and humid, the Irish because it was ‘a little soft’ with an earlier shower making the ground slippery at times. Fortunately, the big downpour came after the match when a lone Drew Petrie was running laps to warm down.

The best players for the Irish included captain Sean Cavanagh and Kierean O’Donaghy, who worked well together up forward. For Australia, Brent Harvey, who views the matches as the second biggest highlight of a career, just behind premierships, but could not always find the players up forward to finish his good work, and Carlton’s Marc Murphy who kicked four overs, starred.

In all sport, there is a story or a character. Kieran O’Donaghy is not only a star forward but the product of reality TV. He was the standout player in The Underdog, in which a make-up team trained and then played a county, then becoming a regular GAA player.

‘What a game!’ declared the commentators after the match. ‘What a finish!’ was an even more accurate description of a good game, which began and ended with handshakes between the players.

The two match series, which is decided on aggregate scores, now goes from the church of footy at Subiaco to the cathedral, the MCG, on Friday night 31 October.

It may be Halloween, but now that peace and harmony has broken out, with luck the only frightening thing will be frighteningly good footy.


Ireland: 3.6.9 – 45 defeated Australia 0.12.8 - 44


* Stephen Alomes wrote the history of the first three decades of Irish-Australian footy relations: 'A Meeting of Cultures in an International World: Australian Football-Gaelic Football International Tours 1967-1998', in T Foley and F Bateman, eds, Irish-Australian Studies, Sydney, Crossing Press, 2000, pp.1-17.