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.