Irish ladies step into unknown against Aussies, says Christina
While the Australians have been inundated with videos and DVDs of the Irish players in action from the All-Ireland series, footage of the women’s AFL is more of a collector’s item.
The first snippets of information the Irish team management received of their opponents came last Monday evening when the Australians presented them with a hastily compiled DVD.
“It should be an interesting game because we haven’t seen them play,” said the multiple All-Star from Mayo. “We don’t know what they’re like. I think they’ve seen a few DVDs of us in action but when you bring this game together it should be a lot different.”
Indeed it will. For the tourists more than the hosts. Like the men’s game, the round ball will be used. Unlike the men’s game, there will be no contact allowed. Par for the course for the Irish, anathema to the Aussie girls.
Even still, Heffernan admits that it has taken some time for the Irish squad to adapt to the changes which also include two hops being allowed rather than the one in Ladies Football. There is no limit in the AFL.
“We are delighted there is no tackle because we weren’t sure what to expect. We didn’t know how big the Aussie girls were or how tall they were. The tackle is a big part of their game. It’s what they know best. I’m sure things will be let go a bit.”
If the standard of the visitors is open to debate then the same can’t be said of the Irish. Jarlath Burns’ panel includes eight players who played key-roles in the recent All-Ireland final and 22 of the 30-strong squad have been nominated for All-star awards in 2006.
Like Sean Boylan’s squad, they have been coming together for training sessions for the guts of eight weeks now and progress has been made. How the teams match up remains to be seen.
“At the beginning, when they got us together, we had a lot of trial matches where the management was trying to explain the rules to us. Since the panel has been picked we’ve been training a lot.
“We played the Underdogs there in a trial match. The first-half was Gaelic to help them and the second half was Rules. There is such a difference when you play the Aussie game.”
With so many intangibles, predicting the outcome is impossible but, whatever the result, Heffernan firmly believes the series will prove to be one of the highlights of her career — whether the concept is revived in the years to come or not.
“It’s the pinnacle of your career in that it’s the only game that you can represent your country as a footballer. It is exciting, especially the fact that we will be the first team to go out and play it.”
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