New Irish boss Boylan demands fair play

NEW Irish manager Sean Boylan has no wish to see the competitive nature of the International Rules Series with Australia being diluted — once the games are played in the “proper spirit” and, more importantly, as long as the refereeing is fair.

Admitting yesterday that the only job he ever wanted was to coach Meath, Boylan said it was vital that the referees were completely impartial.

“To me, that was the most distasteful thing of what happened last year,’’ he said yesterday.

“It seemed so wrong. It was wrong. You don’t want to see that ever happening again. It does, it will kill it stone dead.”

It was vital, too, that everybody went in with the proper spirit, he added, saying that if the approach wasn’t right, it would spell trouble ever before the teams met. And in this context, he accepted that another challenge the management faces will be to convince players who indicated a disinterest in future selection, after what happened in Melbourne, to commit themselves once more.

Already, last year’s captain Padraic Joyce, one of the new selectors, has indicated he will not play again, but in his case it was a decision he was taking irrespective of what went on in the second test. Joining him are former captain Anthony Tohill, who played in eight tests between 1998 and 2001, Kerry great Eoin “Bomber” Liston, who was involved in both the 1984 and 1990 series, and former Wicklow footballer Hugh Kenny, a previous Irish junior team manager.

“We may have to convince certain players how serious we are about it, how we want to have it a proper series for them, and that they’re going to enjoy playing it,’’ continued Boylan.

“Nobody was stronger about it than Padraic. As captain of the team, he didn’t want any of his players hurt. We feel this is a very marketable product, that it can be a fantastic game. This was never intended as a career-threatening series. This was supposed to be a career-enhancing series, and that is what we hope to get it back to.

“We’ll do everything to have it right and proper and competitive. We won’t take that competitive thing out of it — it wouldn’t be in any one of our natures to take that out. Not for a moment would we want to do it.’’

What shocked Boylan last year was players went “in to hurt”, which was unacceptable in any sport.

“I came from a county that had good players and strong players, but there was no player against you who wasn’t able to get up and go to work the next day. And that’s the way it has to be “There was a violence that we didn’t like and you’d hate to see that in any series. If the two associations walked away from what happened and wrote it off — had no more to do with it — then you would have given in to the bully boys. That’s why I think it’s a brave step to continue, one of the things more than anything else that made me get involved. It’s a huge challenge and I’m not going to walk away from it.’’

Boylan said he could appreciate that Australian pride was hurt by the heavy defeat suffered in Ireland two years ago. However, while they improved their skill levels considerably, they had gone “overboard” in the physical stakes.

Asked what type of player he would be picking, he said that, most important of all, they would have to have “the heart” for it. After that, skill and physical strength were important.

Eoin Liston said he was “surprised but delighted” to be called up and to work with Sean Boylan.

“We’re all really looking forward to getting together to share thoughts and plan for the next series. It’s an exciting thing to be involved with your country. I have had the experience as a player. This will be a new experience.’’

Anthony Tohill admits to surprise at how successfully the Australians brought their game to a new level last year. “They showed us a thing or two about how to kick the Gaelic football,’’ he commented.

“It will be a big challenge for us to try and counteract them. To do that we need to be able to win a bit more possession and improve our shooting.’’

Meanwhile, Croke Park Games Manager Pat Daly welcomes the continuity offered by the series in Australia next year.

“It’s particularly important from a player’s perspective, in that he can be aware of the pitfalls that people on the managerial side might not necessarily see, and not having been through the previous series but past games as well. A lot of things have changed since 1998 and it’s important that preparations should be as good as they can be. With somebody like Padraig and Hugh Kenny on board, that will be the case.’’

* It was confirmed yesterday that the Vodafone 2006 All-Star football team will travel to Dubai.