Irish sooks cancel IR series

[OldLion]

I too was initially intrigued by the game and really enjoyed the speed - and this certainly impacted on AFL tactically .. BUT it's a joke as no one knows both how to play and how to umpire the thing. It messes with your head.

A quote from Westmeath secretary Paddy Collins. .. just to give you a flavour of their 'attitude'. Nice.

".. he takes a broad swipe at Australia, saying "it takes great pride in its many achievements in various team sports but many of these are achieved by showing a blatant disregard for even the most basic of sporting principles. Nowhere is this more evident than in their unsporting approach to the Rules Series," he charges. "It is an exercise in futility for anyone to harbour the notion that their attitude will ever be any different.
"One has only to listen to the many attempts by the Australian team manager to justify their sickening on-field excesses to realise that the difficulty in agreeing what is acceptable sporting boundaries is too much to overcome.

"Almost as worrying as the violence itself is the notion being put forward that any decision on the future of the series should be largely left to the present players and management."

Collins says this is a "ludicrous" suggestion, saying that "it is unquestionably more important that a decision of this nature reflects the wishes of the Association's entire membership rather than attaching undue significance to the view of a tiny minority of players, and an even smaller number of management people who at any given time may be flavour of the month, so to speak."

Hope this chap is not considering a holiday to Oz soon.

 

[juddy_Like]

Yes the Irish are Soft and this game is only good for a Laugh. If that.
Thank Heavens this game is over.

Anyone see the co-incidence that our game is getting softer yet more Irish players are coming over. Funny.

 

[RedLegs#5]

I don't blame the GAA for canceling the series...they were in an awkward position. However, this isn't a matter of who's right and who's wrong...who's weak and who's not. We should look at it realistically.

On one hand the AFL wanted to send players off to represent their country, as well as promote their players on an international level. It was a good idea and a good initiative. However, on the other hand, they were sending these professional sportsmen to play against amateurs. When I say amateurs I don't say it as an insult, it's simply a fact. The Irish players aren't real athletes.

Beginning last years series, the Australians definitely went too far on several occasions. However, I don't believe this was the real problem. The Irish were complaining about the Australians over physical nature even before people like Chris Johnson went too far. Once again, I bring back the point... they are amateurs. A hard and fair tackle to them seemed to be an act of aggression. They aren't used to such physical contact. Consequently the Irish themselves went overboard this year and happened to initiate a couple of unsportsmanlike incidents. But can we really blame them? They're amateurs. They are proud and felt they were being bullied. However, not being professional sportsman, and not having a professional coach, they went about it the wrong way (and consequently had a few players getting hurt).

The other and most important problem for them was Kevin Sheedy. The Australians decided to employ a professional and experienced coach, and as a result the Australian team became far too skilled. Of course the Irish weren't happy. In the past the physicality could be overlooked, but now they were also being badly hurt on the scoreboard.

You can't blame them for pulling out....they were made to look like exactly what they are...amateurs.

Australia should try and send their players to play against other professional sportsman. If they play their cards right, maybe they could strike some kind of deal with the NFL? Who knows.

The series is over, and it's probably for the best.

 

[Lazlo]

So the AFL's piddily "international spectacle" has finally been flushed down the toilet?!
So what will the league's raft of star players have to look forward to now? Winning another GF medal? A Brownlow?
ARF!
You had a crap international representative compeition, yet the players still looked upon it as something important. Now there is nothing to speak of.
If you think little kiddies are going to dream of representing their state in a "massive" clash, then you've got another thing coming.

Massive blow for AFL, its players, and Ch 9 who insisted on peddling this rubbish as newsworthy.
Major boost for football

 

[woosh_era]

hmmmmm.

So there will be no tour next year to give them bad, bad aussies some time on the naughty step to think long and hard about what they have done... then we need to change some more rules to let the Irish win a bit more?

I say p1ss the whole lot off. Shame, but inevitable when you are playing a bunch of outright ****s. Perhaps they would like to play a chess championship or do some longstitch?


btw, SOO wont work.

 

[Beckers]

hmmmmm.
.

Read the post that states:
"I would say that Dessie has one eye on the player welfare fund that the govt are giving to the GAA. It will be interesting to see what role the GPA will play now. "


Has Dessie got his eye on the player welfare funds now too Greedy bugger!

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

It ends with Australia the reigning champions. Nice.

 

[copa]

About time this series ended. It's a totally contrived game, so our players can represent the country. I'd rather see a VFL match playing our code, rather than this round ball rubbish.

Exactly... if children have dreams and ambitions to represent their country instead of a suburb, they can play rugby league or soccer.

 

[littlebuddha]

The AFL must listen to the fans & State of Origin is what most want.If the Irish were to be given some of the $780 mil given to the AFL for footy rights watch them change their stance.

 

[cookingpot]

They are just jealous because we stole Damien Leith off of them

 

[grayham]

The irish want it cancelled for a number of reasons. The threat of Australians poaching players being quite high on the list. The lop sided scores of recent series against them also counted.

Do no harm to the concept to have a year off to fuel a bit more hunger.

IR has no influence on SOO, so those that think this is a door open for SOO, go get a reality check from your club asap.

 

[SWANNIES RULE]

The Irish are both physically and mentally weak. Pussies.

 

[Rob]

Does anyone think players would play State of Origin anyway though?

As long as they play it at the start of the year (perhaps running concurrently with the preseason cup) and actually make it state of origin (i.e none of this allies crap), then yes.

6 teams, each plays 5 games, top 2 play the grand final. Perhaps allow 8 man interchange benches to ease the pressure on the players.

 

[3Judd3]

What a bunch of Irish, pussies,fools,weak pansies, scum , smelly eating Irish crabs

 

[Beckers]

They are just jealous because we stole Damien Leith off of them

Who does he play for?

 

[D Mitchell]

I don't blame the GAA for canceling the series...they were in an awkward position. .

A refreshing change from the usual xenophobic and chauvinistic rants but

1. There's no evidence from the newspaper reports, the vision and the commentary that the GAA players initiated anything. They all pointed to actions by the GAA players as being defensive and reactive.

2. The GAA complaints are not about "hard but fair" (interesting choice of adjectives) tackles, they are about the unfair part of the tackle, the part at the end where the head gets banged into the ground, where the faces is scuffled, where the elbow ends up on the throat, where the body lands on the head, the off the ball attacks, the attacks from behind, the fists, the ganging up, the excessive grappling off the ball etc.

3. Your view that there GAA wouldn't complain if they'd won is a theory only, and a smug one at that. There is nothing from the GAA that suggests that they are upset about anything other than the violence. They drew a line in the sand in 2005, the AFL administration and its players crossed it in 2006.

 

[The Majestic]

Who does he play for?

Wasn't he the mascot?

 

[likka]

Makes complete sense to abandon this farce. The games are just too different... FFS there is no tackling in gaelic. None, nada, zippo... understand people?

As I said in an earlier post it is like having AFL players competing with NFL players in a hybrid game. Aussies would get physically smashed and AFL / clubs would be whinging their **** off. Sheedy would be at the beginning of the whinge queue.

Sheedy knew what the consequences but still sanctioned over the top physicality. Stupidity.

 

[gytre]

I don't blame the GAA for canceling the series...they were in an awkward position. However, this isn't a matter of who's right and who's wrong...who's weak and who's not. We should look at it realistically.

On one hand the AFL wanted to send players off to represent their country, as well as promote their players on an international level. It was a good idea and a good initiative. However, on the other hand, they were sending these professional sportsmen to play against amateurs. When I say amateurs I don't say it as an insult, it's simply a fact. The Irish players aren't real athletes.

Beginning last years series, the Australians definitely went too far on several occasions. However, I don't believe this was the real problem. The Irish were complaining about the Australians over physical nature even before people like Chris Johnson went too far. Once again, I bring back the point... they are amateurs. A hard and fair tackle to them seemed to be an act of aggression. They aren't used to such physical contact. Consequently the Irish themselves went overboard this year and happened to initiate a couple of unsportsmanlike incidents. But can we really blame them? They're amateurs. They are proud and felt they were being bullied. However, not being professional sportsman, and not having a professional coach, they went about it the wrong way (and consequently had a few players getting hurt).

The other and most important problem for them was Kevin Sheedy. The Australians decided to employ a professional and experienced coach, and as a result the Australian team became far too skilled. Of course the Irish weren't happy. In the past the physicality could be overlooked, but now they were also being badly hurt on the scoreboard.

You can't blame them for pulling out....they were made to look like exactly what they are...amateurs.

Australia should try and send their players to play against other professional sportsman. If they play their cards right, maybe they could strike some kind of deal with the NFL? Who knows.

The series is over, and it's probably for the best.

Excellent post. Very insightful. Well done. I think the other problem was that a lot of the Aussie players didn't take the series seriously. It was more like a junket to them. The overseas footy trip sorta thing. Many of our best players weren't fussed about playing IR.

I enjoyed the series. It was good to be able to promote our game overseas and build a relationship with a country that is so significant to our own heritage. I hope we can revamp the series again one day, but not too quickly.

I absolutely agree that the cancellation of the IR series now gives the AFL a chance to revamp football at the highest level of all in this country - state of origin. Bring it back!

 

[liz]

A refreshing change from the usual xenophobic and chauvinistic rants but

1. There's no evidence from the newspaper reports, the vision and the commentary that the GAA players initiated anything. They all pointed to actions by the GAA players as being defensive and reactive.

So the head butt of O'Keefe and the knee into the back of Brown were defensive and reactive? Come again!

The Australians were no angels, sure, but your continued insistence that it was all one sided is laughable.

FWIW, the Irish players (not sure exactly who - maybe their players' association) were quoted shortly after the match as saying they wanted to continue with the series. I wonder how much say they had in the GAA's decision?

 

[Bollox]

You useless, weak, squat to piss, pinko, lezzo, skirt wearing, purse carrying, gusset soiling, nancy boy wussy arsed bitches.

Who the helll are we gonna beat up on now ?

Pussies !!!!!

 

[D Mitchell]

So the head butt of O'Keefe and the knee into the back of Brown were defensive and reactive? Come again!

The Australians were no angels, sure, but your continued insistence that it was all one sided is laughable.

FWIW, the Irish players (not sure exactly who - maybe their players' association) were quoted shortly after the match as saying they wanted to continue with the series. I wonder how much say they had in the GAA's decision?

There is considerable doubt about the head butt. Nobody seems to have seen it and it wasn't captured on film. But head butts are by their nature defensive. They can only occur if the victim's face is in the face of the butter. As we are speculating, let me put it that if it occurred, then it was because O'Keefe had his face in Lockhart's. Brown's back ? Do you mean O'Mahoney's knee into Lappins' back or do you mean someone's knee into Brown's hip in a contest ? You are having trouble finding incidents to blame the Irish for, aren't you. You are restricted to O'Mahoney on Lappin, one incident, for which he was sent off.

The decision was with the GAA management committee, not the players. From all accounts, they are happy to play international rules and can dish it out if pressed. The fault lies with the fools at the AFL who saw the line in the sand, drawn by the GAA in 2005, and ignored it.

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

So the AFL's piddily "international spectacle" has finally been flushed down the toilet?!
So what will the league's raft of star players have to look forward to now? Winning another GF medal? A Brownlow?
ARF!
You had a crap international representative compeition, yet the players still looked upon it as something important. Now there is nothing to speak of.
If you think little kiddies are going to dream of representing their state in a "massive" clash, then you've got another thing coming.

Massive blow for AFL, its players, and Ch 9 who insisted on peddling this rubbish as newsworthy.
Major boost for football

Are you one of those RL fans? Living in Canberra, I have a lot of RL fan friends, and they unanimously agree that RL Internationals are a complete waste of time, and take no interest whatsoever. What is there, 3 countries?

 

[Saturday@2]

You are having trouble finding incidents to blame the Irish for, aren't you. You are restricted to O'Mahoney on Lappin, one incident, for which he was sent off.

And your doing the very same thing with the following:

The GAA complaints are not about "hard but fair" (interesting choice of adjectives) tackles, they are about the unfair part of the tackle, the part at the end where the head gets banged into the ground, where the faces is scuffled, where the elbow ends up on the throat, where the body lands on the head, the off the ball attacks, the attacks from behind, the fists, the ganging up, the excessive grappling off the ball

Nothing concrete there, just a lot of half-baked accusations. Your inability to concede that the Irish had a part to play in this debacle depreciates your often sensible posts.

 

[D Mitchell]

And your doing the very same thing with the following:



Nothing concrete there, just a lot of half-baked accusations. Your inability to concede that the Irish had a part to play in this debacle depreciates your often sensible posts.

Your problem is the language you are using which seeks to equate the actions of the victim with those of the attacker. The Irish gave as good as they got in a number of identifiable incidents. That doesn't justify, excuse or equate with the behaviour of the Australians who announced what they intended doing - and proceeded to do it, from before the bounce of the ball.