International Rules First Test: In many ways this opening Test is the biggest challenge for Ireland in the history of the International Rules. It's not just Australia proved such convincing winners last year. I wasn't particularly excited when I first saw the Ireland panel for this series - quite the opposite - and that hasn't changed.
I feel there are quite a few newcomers in there, and that's always a worry. The first thing I was looking for was an experienced full back, but he doesn't jump out at me in this panel. In the past we've had Darren Fay and Graham Canty. Canty's unavailability through injury is a big loss. Australia's star forward Barry Hall can cause all sorts of trouble. Their game plan is to hit the full forward regularly, work the ball down the flanks, and make as many marks as possible. And you just need to defend that play, and without a physical, imposing full back it's a lot more difficult. Straight away I feel the Irish are on the back foot there.
I can see Nicholas Murphy going back there, possibly, but it won't be an easy job for whoever takes it. Having said that, I think we do have some good options in our forward line. Alan Brogan, Steven McDonnell, and Ronan Clarke in particular.
A lot of people are hoping Kieran Donaghy can reproduce some of his championship form, but in my opinion, the players that come into this game straight after the All-Ireland final without the build-up of all the trial matches and working on the new code, that's a definite disadvantage. And we have that with the three Kerry players - Donaghy, Aidan O'Mahony and Marc Ó Sé. I suspect they'll find it quite difficult to settle in.
The Australian team are impressive. Their backroom team has been more or less intact since 1998, with Kevin Sheedy recently taking over as manager, and they know the players they need for this game.
Key for the Irish will be to focus on playing the game they know, display all the GAA skills at their best. That means kicking the ball accurately to each other so they can make the marks, because that's definitely the key to them winning. If they start to fist the ball to each other and try to move it up the field that way they'll be setting themselves up for the tackle, and will run into all kinds of trouble.
The standard is being raised by the Australians, and I would be a little fearful that we could be totally overrun. I feel we do have the ability to get goals, the six-pointers. That's another key to doing well. We should be getting at least four six-pointers per Test. The goalkeeping thing is foreign to them, so that's an obvious advantage we have that we need to capitalise on a lot more. We have forwards capable of prising open the Australians - they'll need to take the most of their chances. We're not going to get near as much possession as the Australians. We have to use the possession we get cleverly, and take all our scores. We also need to get those scores early on.
I've found over the years the Australians, particularly when they're away from home, are slow to start. I'm sure we'll get numerous opportunities in the first quarter and we'll have to build up a lead.
We also need to pressurise the Australian kick-outs. There's going to be a massive work ethic necessary in the Irish team to cover their backs, and when their goalkeeper is kicking out is the time to apply that pressure, and make him kick a 50-50 ball, and force the turnover. But whatever we do we can't let the Australians build from the back, because that's one way they're guaranteed to overrun us.
Another key tactic is the use of substitutions. The interchange is part of their game. They'll bring players in and out in the first quarter, with the whole idea of keeping players fresh. The Irish are more inclined to wait until a player is shattered. But that's too late, he'll never recover again. So we need to keep rotating players early while making sure we have the strongest 15 on the field for the final quarter.
Even with the rule changes it's going to be physical, but the tackle is so foreign to Gaelic football there's no point in trying to match the Australians. We should back off when they're running at us, and instead set up a type of blanket defence, a la Tyrone. In that way we'll still pressurise the kicker.
The Irish are closing the gap in the upper body strength area, but we're still not even close to them when it comes to tackling. I'm not saying they should totally back out of the tackle. Kieran McGeeney knows how to tackle, and Tadhg Kennelly and Colm Begley will be up for it too, but generally, it's more beneficial for the Irish to pressurise the players into kicking rather than selling themselves in the tackle.
One area that can cause concern is the breaking ball on the ground. The instinct of the Australian player is to go head first in on the ground, to fist it away. Whereas the instinct of the Gaelic footballer is to go in leg first, and boot it away. The Aussies refer to that as a "career-threatening situation", and it can provoke an angry response.
Seán Boylan has had a big job getting the Irish ready, and I feel for him in many ways. I remember walking away after my first Test in charge and saying 'I don't know this game at all'. You're learning all the time, and I'm sure there'll be things happening this evening Seán will learn from.
If the Irish get a good start they could hang on. But I know the Australians call the third quarter "the moving quarter" and they could claw back the deficit there, and I would be very concerned about them in the fourth, especially if Hall has the impact I think he will have.
