World Footy News

The Irish Warriors take on the British Bulldogs in the second and final clash in London on the 23rd April. The first match, played in Dublin, saw the Irish narrowly defeat the Bulldogs as they battled from 30 points in arrears in the first quarter to take the win by a thrilling 5 points. We are all looking forward to what should be another intense game between these two teams next weekend.

WFN had the opportunity to interview the President of the Australian Rules Football League of Ireland / Assistant Coach to Warriors, Ciaran O’Hara, and here’s what he had to say about the upcoming match;

What do you think ‘made’ your comeback in the first match?

I think the guys weren’t prepared for the intensity of the first quarter the last day and made some costly early mistakes. What really made the comeback was hard work, patience and unity of purpose, things that were probably missing in the first quarter.

Do you think this match will be as close as the first?

I hope so, that will mean we are there or thereabouts, our team will be weaker in some areas as some of our players will be on the European Legion team, notably David McElhone from the first game. The Bulldogs did not have their Legion players with them the last day, so I’d expect them to be just as strong.

How have the guys been preparing for these matches?

We’ve not done anything out of the ordinary really, we’ve trained probably once a month as a group and played the first three rounds of the Embassy Plate, which has given us some good hitouts, but nothing of the same intensity of the first day.

How do you think the team will do this time around?

It’s difficult to say, both sides are using these matches as trials, so a lot of guys are getting a run and these are not necessarily the best sides either team could put out. We could ordinarily be picking outstanding players like Ian O’ Sullivan, Ray Colleran, Mick Hurley, Paul Comey and Brian O’ Connell, to name but a few; but with these guys not able to commit to the trip to Australia we’re concentrating in these games at looking at the players who are in contention.

Any new players on this team? / Changes to this team?

Eoin Ó Súileabháin and Rob Armstrong return having missed the last game, Matt Crehan will hopefully have recovered from injury, John Tierney will play having fought back from a injury in recent weeks. We may also use the game to give a couple of our exiles a run (players based outside of Ireland). We’re missing a few too though the five guys on the Legion team, Clifford Richardson who got the late winner the last day, David Miller who has Rugby commitments and Paul Sharry who has a league final in Croke Park with Westmeath (Gaelic football).

Ireland Warriors V British Bulldogs takes place at Dulwich College (South London) first bounce 1:00pm. This match will be a curtain raiser event to the match AIS/AFL Academy V European Legion. Notably the European Legion side includes 5 young rising stars from Ireland Eoin Carroll, Ken Fernee, James Laverty, David McElhone and Darren McGeever.  Good luck lads!

Editor:  WFN welcomes Leiha on board covering Ireland.  She has been living in Dublin 5 years, Ireland is now her second home, Melbourne, Australia being her first. She currently plays for the Dublin Women's team and has represented Ireland at the European Cup 2010.  She is also the current Women's Executive Officer for the Australian Rules Football League of Ireland.