O’Keeffe adamant Irish will be ready

THE GAA is praying that preparations for the Irish International Rules team this year will not be dogged by the farcical problems that were encountered two years ago when Australia last visited for the annual series.

On that occasion, the replayed All-Ireland final between Galway and Kerry and the appearance of a number of players for their clubs in and around the two tests effectively hamstrung Ireland's chances of competing with their professional visitors on an even keel and they proceeded to lose the series that year in abject fashion.

However, the harsh reality for team manager John O'Keeffe and GAA president Sean McCague is that there is simply no means of working out a schedule between now and October that would guarantee a faultless preparation period for the side who face Australia on October 13th and 20th at Croke Park.

"It's impractical at this stage to gauge what teams are going to be in county finals so we don't know if any of the players will be involved in them," said McCague in Croke Park yesterday. "As we get nearer and we see what problems exist, we'll examine them then in that context with the various county officers. We'll just have to wait and see."

O'Keeffe echoed the president's thoughts, but made it clear that he would not suffer a repeat of the farcical situation where players togged out for club one day and country the next.

"I know that in many counties they're going to have a backlog of championship matches that have to be played. That's one of the main concerns I would have and I don't want to have the same scenario again of maybe someone having to play championship on a Saturday evening and having to come in and try to play this game the following. But I haven't got any guarantee at this stage."

However, the Irish management doesn't have its hands tied completely in preparing for the series and O'Keeffe, who has served as coach under Colm O'Rourke and Brian McEniff the last two years, is determined to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

Training for the preliminary panel minus those still involved in the championship begins in Portmarnock this Friday evening and will continue weekly right up until the first test.

As the summer turns to autumn however, training will again revert to a provincial set up due to the lack of bright weather and the difficulties in getting players to the one location at a suitable time becomes more difficult.

For newly named captain Seamus Moynihan, it is hugely important for Ireland to recover home pride after the shambolic circumstances in 2000 which he roundly criticised at the time.

"Obviously because the Australians are professional they have a physical edge doing weights three times a week and training seven days a week. We do hard work during the week but fitness wasn't a problem last year. In the last quarter (last year) we finished the game very strongly and won the game by 17 or 18 points in the end, but there's no doubt that as the away team they have a huge advantage.

"They'll be together for 13 to 14 days, the camaraderie is much easier to build up and they'll be training every day. John bringing the guys in from Thursday before the test on will be a definite help to our preparations."

Whether a crowd of 70,000 plus actually attends the game at Croke Park was another moot point raised yesterday and Sean McCague was adamant that last year's poor attendances in Australia were not indicative of a diminishing interest in the series.

"Irish sports followers think tickets all the time. They're wondering when and where games will be and whether tickets can be got. With a bit of marketing and advance notice we will ensure that as many people as possible will be here. We certainly want to see the stadium full and I would like to see as many children and people, who on other days can't get tickets, come and see our new stadium and our team play and I think that will happen."