Aussie performance better but still ‘enormously disappointing’

HONOUR restored for the Australians then, but defeat never sits well with our Antipodean cousins.

All week coach Gary Lyon has gritted his teeth at the torrent of criticism reining down on his and his players' heads and he showed the strain in a curt press conference after yesterday's game.

Lyon had already dealt with a number of questions with a disdain normally reserved for something you might find on the sole of your shoe when one brave hack inquired as to whether the pre-game fracas was a premeditated Aussie tactic.

"Are you asking me was it a tactic on our part? Is that what you're asking me? I was walking up the stairs when I heard the roar. I turned around and it was on. Now, as is generally the case, the focus comes on us when there's a dust-up."

It might not be how he envisaged wrapping up his time as Aussie coach but this was, at least, a far superior performance to that offered up seven days previously.

"They had a go, they had a crack and that's what we demanded of them. I was proud of the effort today even if you can never be satisfied when you lose a game. We came here with one aim in mind and we didn't achieve it.

"From that point of view we're enormously disappointed.

"We worked all week on not giving them any time, any room or any space. That was our motto of the week and we did it superbly well for the first half. Then there was a five, 10-minute spell where the game split open.

"When it does that we pay the price. We started to get a bit of it back at the end of the third-quarter but the damage was done."

So effective were Australia in the first half, in fact, they could and should have been more than half a dozen points to the good going down the tunnel at the interval. Lyon gave you the feeling afterwards the performance of Irish referee Michael Collins might be one reason why they didn't.

"I felt we should have gone in at half-time further ahead. We should have taken more chances. The other primary focus for us was the tackle, which we didn't do last week. Our tackling in that first half was as good as I've seen since I've been involved.

"Unfortunately others didn't [agree]. You make your own observations. Don't wait for me to tell you."

After a disappointing series defeat, the Aussies were naturally keen to look forward rather than dwell on the past. Captain James Hird looked beyond the details of the two games and to the series' future in general.

"It's an amazing experience. Playing for your club and winning premierships is fantastic but this is great as well. The great thing about this game is that it promotes Australian and Gaelic football around the world. Our game is probably as big as it can get in Australia and the only way we can get it any bigger is to play these games.

"I can understand why some players don't play because of injuries or needing a break or whatever.

"But it would be great to see the best Australian players play in this series. We need to play these games against Ireland and maybe against other countries around the world too."