Lyon will not change team's style

INTERNATIONAL RULES: Sections of the Australian media have been expressing the "surprise" and "bemusement" of team management and officials at the suggestions that last Sunday's International Rules Test at Croke Park was excessively physical.

Manager Garry Lyon told yesterday's Herald Sun, Australia's biggest selling daily newspaper, that "it was all about the wild Australians over here (in Ireland), but there are two teams out there".

Lyon also stated his surprise at the threat of GAA president Seán McCague to discontinue the series if there were further outbreaks of indiscipline: "There were a couple of incidents and I don't think they were necessarily instigated by us. But our blokes aren't going to sit back and cop that. I wouldn't be worried about telling the players to change the way we play."

McCague, however, when speaking last Monday had been careful not to point to one side being more responsible than the other for the violent incidents, and suggested the incidents should not be taken out of proportion.

Lyon repeated his claim in the Melbourne Age that his team had a physical edge and they would not change its style for Sunday's second Test: "We won't be changing a thing. I think we reacted to them. They tried to say the same sorts of things last year when they came to Australia. We got the wool pulled over our eyes then and lost. I won't let that happen again.

"It's bemusing actually. We had a guy down behind play and another one who almost had his head taken off but we weren't complaining about it. We don't have a problem with the way the game was played."

Lyon admitted the Irish struggled to adapt to Australia's physicality, but that Australia faced the same challenge when working with the round ball.

"Tackling is definitely foreign to them. And we made a real point of laying some heavy tackles in the match because we knew it would be to our advantage."

In an interview on the official Australian Football League (AFL) website, the AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson also found McCague's threat to end the series as largely unnecessary. "I'm surprised at that," he said. "There's been some press here as well. But on Sunday evening, there was no suggestion from my counterpart at the GAA (McCague) that it was anything but a terrific game."

Any talk of violence was, said Jackson, unfair: "There was a bit of pushing and shoving and there was one or two things the umpires will review. But to describe the game as violent is way off the mark and I don't think anyone here would agree with that. It was an aggressive game of international footy, and that's all it was. We're pretty comfortable with it."

Jackson also said there may be some fine-tuning required to the game to accommodate the best aspects of Australian Rules and Gaelic Football. Officials from both countries will hold their annual meeting today, and Jackson said the AFL would seek an agreement to extend the series.

Meanwhile, Australia have reported Matthew Pavlich will have until Sunday to prove his fitness after injuring his hamstring in the first game. Robert Murphy is certain to play, with Warren Tredrea likely to earn a call-up.

In GAA management news, Bertie Óg Murphy has insisted he will not be returning to his Cork hurling post, having announced his resignation last month. "My decision to resign the position is definite and there is no turning around," he said.

Nicky Cashin, the former Waterford hurler and current Kilkenny minor manager, has emerged as favourite to become Offaly senior hurling manager. Mayo are due to name their football manager in the coming days, with John Maughan expected to return to the position.

Padraig Nolan, the new Kildare football manager, is the deputy principal at St Patrick's Post Primary School, Naas, not as reported yesterday.