Ireland"s call in the International Rules

FORTY years after Meath played in the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1968, two players from the Royal County contributed to Ireland"s 57-54 victory over Australia in the final game of the latest International Rules series on Friday. Dunboyne"s David Gallagher and Kevin Reilly from Navan O"Mahonys were part of the Irish side that edged out the Aussies in an entertaining encounter before 42,823 in a misty evening in the famous MCG. The victory, added to the one-point success in Perth the previous week, justified the strategies employed by Sean Boylan and his selectors Anthony Tohill and Eoin 'Bomber" Liston. They had opted for players who were willing to put in the hard graft and everyone involved certainly gave 100 per cent and more to overcome the highly-competitive Aussies. Ireland funnelled back to effectively shore up the defence when danger threatened while forwards such as Kieran Donaghy and Benny Coulter made good use of the spaces up-front. Clearly part of their tactics, Ireland often sprayed the ball around soccer-style. Players such as Coulter indicated that they could have made a big impression in soccer if he so wished. The three-point victory gave Ireland a 102-97 aggregate win at the end of this series which was looked upon as a crucial test of whether the hybrid game had a future or not. Any outbreak repeat of the unrestrained violence that married the series two years ago would almost certainly have led to the International Rules being consigned to the dustbin. The absence of any serious dust-ups in the two games suggest that the series has a long-term future. Back in 1968 reigning All-Ireland champions Meath defeated a local side, the Galahs, at the MCG, the same location where Ronnie Delany won the gold medal for Ireland in the 1956 Olympic Games. Meath were then in the middle of a pioneering tour that helped to cement the contacts between the footballing fraternities in Australia and Ireland. In searing heat and on a rock hard surface Meath won by 3-9 to 0-7 with the help of goals from Mattie Kerrigan, Tony Brennan and Mick O"Brien. The referee for that game was Noel Eiffe from Ratoath. The official attendance was reported to be 28,636 although the feeling among some of the Meath players was that there were a lot more people looking on than that. Conditions proved to be a lot different on Friday with the light rain and stiff breeze making for uncertain underfoot conditions. It was one of the many difficulties the men in green had to overcome in a spirited performance. Friday"s game also proved to be a much closer contest than that pioneering encounter against the Galahs all those years ago with the Aussies foraging into a 15-12 lead at the end of the first-quarter. Sean Cavanagh led the way for the Irish with two overs during that first 18-minute period. Ireland produced their best display in the second-quarter with Donaghy and Enda McGinley making the most of hesitancy and slackness in the Australian defence to score goals and give their side a 36-21 interval advantage. The play ebbed and flowed for the rest of the game with Ireland keeping their noses in front until the final hooter sounded. Reilly was less prominent than the previous week although and he was one of the Irish players who were 'interchanged' during the evening. The O"Mahonys player made a notable clearance out of defence in the closing stages. Compared to the first game, Gallagher had relatively little to do as the Irish backline protected him well for the most part with Cork"s Graham Canty in superb form. Gallagher"s handling was secure and his distribution was intelligent. The next Meath manager - whoever he will be - will at least know that he has two highly capable netminders available to him in Gallagher and Brendan Murphy. Gallagher could do little about the three goals that went past him on Friday with one of them from Marc Murphy clearly illegal, the Aussie punching to the net with while the ball was on the ground. One of the last games Gallagher played for Meath was the NFL Div 2 final in 2005 when Monaghan netted a late goal to snatch victory. There was to be no late, late show from the Aussies on Friday. Instead Gallagher, Reilly and Boylan did the business for the Royal County - and Ireland.