SEÁN MORANtalks to the Armagh player on how the strength and conditioning undertaken by the Irish players has closed the physical gap
ARMAGH’S CIARÁN McKeever is among the rising generation of quality International Rules players. Having made his debut three years ago he has become, over the past three series, Ireland’s most consistent defender.
On his debut in Perth in 2008 he was one of Ireland’s top three ball handlers and calmly ran down the clock in the final quarter by swapping short kicks with goalkeeper David Gallagher.
By this year’s trip his stature in the panel had developed to the point where he was appointed vice-captain, an especially onerous task that has included taking on the media duties for captain Stephen Cluxton.
On the field he was part of a huge defensive effort in the first test, which set the tone for a big win by nailing tackles and winning the physical battle with the Australia forwards, a fact ruefully conceded by AFL coach Rodney Eade after the match.
McKeever says that the tackle was unsurprisingly a priority in the preparations both at home and here on arrival.
“Last year, when the Australians engaged us in the tackle we were spilling the ball a lot. We were just getting rid of it for the sake of getting rid of it. We worked very hard on that back home in Ireland and again when we came back out here. I was just telling the boys that you are going to get wrapped.
“It’s just the nature of the game. You need to get that into your mindset. You need to be composed on the ball. The boys worked very hard on that over the last few months. Our decision-making on the ball was pretty good.”
Another of Eade’s and the Australian’s reactions was that Ireland had out-muscled the home team and dominated the mark. According to McKeever the team consciously set out to resist any attempt to subdue them physically.
“Definitely, any day you go out and play football you are not going to get intimidated. We all talked about that. We said if these boys front up, you don’t take a step back, take a step forward. At the end of the day, it is only another human being and they are no bigger or stronger than us.
“They would try and intimidate you, but you have to stand your ground, so they go one step forward, we go two steps forward. There is a great bunch of lads there and you know that your back is covered if a situation develops.
“We didn’t travel 13,000 miles to get intimidated by a crowd of Aussies. We came out here to win the series. By the talk of them last night, they are going to play it on their terms. I don’t think we are really worried about that and if they want to step the ante up, we will have no bother matching them.”
That theme continued yesterday in the remarks of Australia forward Angus Monfries, who echoed his coach’s view on the physical collisions.
“We didn’t play to our strengths,” he said. “That was something we probably lacked last Friday – a bit of intensity. We’ve got a few drills today where we’ll be working on that, our pressure and our corralling skills.
“That’s our game week to week and they’re probably not used to it, but they beat us in that area so we’ve definitely got to improve that on Friday. We pride ourselves on being tough and winning those things, so to get beaten in it was disappointing.”
A personal trainer, McKeever is involved with Queen’s University Freshers and says that the disadvantage for Ireland in playing professionals is diminishing.
“Back home, every county team is doing strength and conditioning programmes. It’s nothing that you aren’t used to. Every club team now is training hard and boys are on programmes as well. If you train hard enough, you will be fit to compete. That’s the bottom line.”
