Rules veteran Coulter glad to answer Ireland’s call

TWO years ago a nasty shoulder from Australian vice captain Adam Selwood left Benny Coulter with a broken nose and a diminished appetite for the International Rules Series.

So what changed? National pride kicked in explained the Down man.

“When I got the phone call from Anthony (Tohill) to come out for training I went for it.

“It’s not often you get the chance to play for your country. You take the opportunity when you get it.”

Coulter revealed he suffered a slight injury scare on Sunday during Mayobridge’s Ulster club defeat to St Gall’s. He explained: “I picked up a bit of a dead leg but the run out on Tuesday helped to get the legs loosened up. I’m grand.

“It took me awhile to get over the defeat but I’m looking forward to Friday night.”

That training session was followed by a briefing from the two referees, Pat McEnaney and AFL counterpart Steve McBirney.

Coulter was happy with the message they imparted.

He explained: “The referees are going to be clinical and if there are any bad tackles they’re going to cut down on them.

“And they (the members of the Disciplinary Tribunal) are going to suspend boys for the National League and the AFL as well.”

He accepts while they need to be stronger in the tackle, it’s a continuing challenge to succeed.

“If you’re playing a normal game you’re usually standing up shadowing a man. This is going to be my ninth Test and I’m still doing it when a player gets the ball.

“We’ve worked this last six or seven weeks with Mike McGurn on the tackle — and the tackle alone — and that should benefit us.”

But he recognises the Australian players too have continued to raise their standard.

“The last two years they’ve wiped the floor with us. Put the violence and that entire aside and they have beaten us easily enough. But, we’ve prepared hard and we’re really going out to win it. We’re not going out expecting to run them close. We’re out to win.”