One week, two teams and plenty of discussion

The All-Star football team caused even more debate than normal but Anthony Tohill looks to have got his International Rules squad spot on, writes JOE’s Gaelic football analyst Ciaran Whelan.

 

After the All-Ireland final this year, it was quite clear that Cork wouldn’t dominate the All-Star list in the same way as many All-Ireland winners of the past, purely because they had won it more down to the strength in depth of their overall panel than by real individual brilliance.

There’s clearly a lot of horse-trading which goes on at the meetings to decide upon the All-Star team – if we include this player, we can’t include that one, that type of thing. A lot of stock seems to be placed on numbers. There’s a feeling that All-Ireland winners have to have more representatives than the runners-up, and in turn the runners-up have to have more representatives than the semi-finalists.

I don’t concur with that at all. The All-Stars are individual awards. They should be picked on individual merits, so it doesn’t matter which counties they go to.

There were a few strange, strange decisions. Down had three forwards in the team, Cork had none. If Aidan Walsh’s performance in the All-Ireland final was good enough to get him into the team at midfield, how could they leave Daniel Goulding out?

Graham Canty at centre back was another one. He was unlucky with injury this year, which curtailed his impact in the latter stages, and the type of fella he is, he would probably admit that he had played better in other years and didn’t win an All-Star.

The forward line in particular is always very difficult to pick. The way the game has gone, with packed defences, it can be difficult for individual backs to stand out, whereas you always have 10 or 12 forwards fighting for the six places.

The All-Star teams is what it is, we won’t lose too much sleep over it, but maybe a different system should be used rather than the journalists sitting down to pick the team. A match-by-match ratings system could be the way to go, with people marked for every game they play. There would be difficulties with that too, because someone who has played just two championship games but plays well in both might have a better average than someone who has played six on the way to an All-Ireland final, but I believe some sort of agreed ratings system used over the whole year would be fairer and more equitable than the current set-up, where there definitely appears to be an emphasis on horse-trading and number of representatives per county.

Another selection this week that generated plenty of discussion was Anthony Tohill’s International Rules panel. The absence of all Kerry’s 2010 panel caused a bit of a stir but on the whole I like the shape of the squad Anthony has chosen.

Brendan Murphy from Carlow is a fantastic player. We were robbed of seeing him play a whole lot this year because Carlow went out so early, but he looks a top class footballer

He has gone for a specific type of player, picking physical, mobile players and avoiding most of the lighter type of lads, such as Colm Cooper, who might be top class at our own game but just aren’t suited to the particular demands of International Rules.

Anthony Tohill knows the International Rules game well, he knows you have to be mobile, quick on the ball and physical. He has picked a solid squad. There are a lot of lads who have been fantastic at this game in the past, such as Graham Canty, Sean Cavanagh and Leighton Glynn. He also has several players who have experience of Australian Rules – Michael Shields, Colm Begley, Tommy Walsh, Tadhg Kennelly, Marty Clarke and Brendan Murphy.

I’m looking forward to seeing a couple of lads in particular. Michael Murphy from Donegal would appear to be made for this game, and it’ll be interesting to see how he does at the edge of the square. I watched Brendan Murphy from Carlow in the first round of the Leinster championship against Wicklow and he’s a fantastic player. We were robbed of seeing him play a whole lot because Carlow went out so early, but he looks a top class footballer.

Throughout the panel, there are guys who can win marks in dangerous positions, and hopefully turn possession into three-pointers regularly. I don’t think there’s any big issue between Anthony Tohill and the Kerry lads but the one who is missing who really fits the bill of physicality and mobility is Kieran Donaghy. He had alternative commitments over the last few weeks, with his club Austin Stacks in the Kerry county final on Sunday, so whether he can be called up in time for the second test at Croke Park in two weeks remains to be seen.

Keeper pressure

I’ll be interested to see the line-out he goes for. Midfield is null and void in this game, because there are no kick-outs into the middle sector. Because of that, because possession is so important, the player in the most pressurised situation is often the goalkeeper. If he doesn’t put the ball on a teammate’s chest for a mark, you’re under serious pressure straight away. A bouncing ball in this game is almost certain to mean an Irish player getting crunched by an Australian tackle. I don’t have any worries, though, because Stephen Cluxton is the best in the business at that job.

Australia have picked a lot of guys who haven’t any experience of this game so the big question with them, as always, is their ability to adapt to the round ball. I don’t think they’ve had as much time together in the lead-up to the tour as normal, either, so they could find it difficult. I’m hearing stories that Tommy Walsh was finding it hard to get used to the round ball again after a year Down Under, so that shows you how problematic it is for the Australians.

Overall, I’m really looking forward to it. The appetite for the game is back after a two-year break and there’s sure to be a great atmosphere in Limerick next Saturday. With a solid panel at Anthony Tohill’s disposal, I think there’s a good chance Ireland will make a winning start to the 2010 series.

 

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