Nine All Stars make up spine of Ireland side to face Australia

Joe Kernan describes it as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do”, although not necessarily when it came to Diarmuid Connolly.

Because in selecting his 23-man Ireland panel to face Australia in the International Rules one-Test series in Croke Park on Saturday week, Kernan included Connolly even though he didn’t feature in any of their trial games. The Dublin forward had been club-tied up until the end of October, and before that was recovering from their All-Ireland triumph.

‘Was committed’

“We just couldn’t get him,” explains Kernan. “It wasn’t his fault that Dublin won the All-Ireland, although he’d a fair bit to do with it. Then he was committed to his club (St Vincent’s). He was captain, and he felt they were going to go all the way, and in fairness we left the door open.

“Two days after losing the county title, he rang me,” he continued. “So no, he wasn’t there last weekend, but wait a second, do we want to start looking at his qualities? Bernard Brogan (the Ireland captain) just said he’s in, and that means he will get the ball here (pointing to his chest), not up here (pointing over his head).

“He (Connolly) is one of the best players in the country, and was for two or three years, and hasn’t fallen below that. So for us to get someone like him, intelligent, good kicker, good passer of the ball, he’s everything that we want our team to be. He’s intelligent, he knows where to go, and he can turn and kick a ball 40 yards without looking. Those qualities are hard to come by, and for someone to run the half-forward line for us he’s ideal.”

Connolly is one of five of Dublin’s All-Ireland winning team, along with Brogan, Jack McCaffrey, Philly McMahon and Rory O’Carroll, in the squad.

Elite playing class

McCaffrey, fresh from being named Footballer of the Year last Friday night, is also one of nine All-Stars selected by Kernan, and is joined by fellow members of the elite playing class of 2015: Mattie Donnelly, Lee Keegan, McMahon, Conor McManus, O’Carroll, Aidan O’Shea, Donnchadh Walsh and Brogan.

Kernan viewed 70 players in training and trial matches over the last 10 weeks, and has included five of the six All-Star forwards who were unveiled last week available.

“And in fairness, we took the last three full weeks to name it. A few boys jumped out in those three weeks, so the more we played, the better those boys, and stood out. It wasn’t easy, I feel sorry for the boys who missed out, because everyone made a big effort.

“And we have players on form. Bernard had a great year and that’s one of the reasons I picked him as captain. And the fact Dublin won the All-Ireland.

‘Cope in battle’

“The fact they are All Stars means these boys can cope in battle, and that’s what you look for on big days, when the pressure is on, in the heat of battle. This is a different type of battle, because we can’t take people on like we normally do, and burn them. We’ve got to look up, look for space, and move the ball and fast.”

Kernan also laughed off the suggestion some of the Dublin or Tyrone or Mayo players may be slow to play for each other with the same passion as they would their county team mates: Wait, we’ve all been there. I had battles with Tyrone, for years, as a manager, but when I managed Ulster, the best players I took in were Tyrone players. So we hear these myths.

“When these boys cross that white line they just want to play football. And everybody is the same, when you’re in the pack together. We went out last weekend, for a few beers, and the noise on the bus was good, good crack. If we got on the bus and no one was talking we’d have to rethink a few names. But no, there was a great atmosphere, they’ve gelled well, and hopefully if we win they’ll be hugging each other, because they’re part of something special.”

For Longford’s Mickey Quinn, selection will mean playing for Ireland on Saturday week, and less than 24 hours later playing a Leinster semi-final with his club Emmet Óg: “Yeah. Mickey will play, there’s not a problem. Mickey Quinn has been a breath of fresh air.”

Kernan certainly can’t be accused of favouritism, as not a single player from his native Armagh was selected: “Of course it disappoints me. You’d love to have some of your own. But at this moment in time we didn’t feel there was anybody there that we could select. Simple as that.”

In all, 12 counties across all four provinces represented and of the 23 named, 12 are in line to make a first appearance for Ireland in the series.  It’s also the first Ireland squad in 10 years not to feature any AFL-based players, although Colm Begley (Brisbane and St Kilda), Paul Cribbin (Collingwood) and Michael Quinn (Essendon) have all been on the books of an Australian club at some stage.

Ireland Squad to face Australia, 21st November, Croke Park (*= first Irish cap)

1 Niall Morgan (Tyrone)
2 Colm Begley (Laois)
3 Gary Brennan (Clare)*
4 Bernard Brogan (Dublin)
5 Eoin Cadogan (Cork)*
9 Mattie Donnelly (Tyrone)
10 Eoin Doyle (Kildare)*
11 Peter Harte (Tyrone)*
13 Darren Hughes (Monaghan)
15 Lee Keegan (Mayo)
17 Paul Kerrigan (Cork)*
19 Jack McCaffrey(Dublin)
20 Ciarán McDonald (Tipperary)
22 Philip McMahon (Dublin)*
23 Conor McManus (Monaghan)
25 Rory O'Carroll(Dublin)*
26 John O'Loughlin(Laois)*
28 Aidan O'Shea (Mayo)
29 Michael Quinn (Longford)*
31 Donnchadh Walsh (Kerry)*
33 Diarmuid Connolly(Dublin)*
34 Paul Cribbin(Kildare)
35 Paddy Mc Brearty(Donegal)
Stand by players
16 Paddy O'Rourke(Meath)
6 Killian Clarke(Cavan)*
7 Ray Connellan (Westmeath)*
14 Kieran Hughes (Monaghan)*
21 Gearóid McKiernan (Cavan)*
24 Dessie Mone (Monaghan)*
27 Colm O'Neill (Cork)
30 Enda Smith (Roscommon)*