O'Connor would call a halt

International Rules: Kerry football manager Jack O'Connor yesterday backed calls from Tyrone's Mickey Harte to abandon the International Rules series. Although opinions are mixed among leading managers about the future of the series, the violent incidents which marred Friday's second Test in Melbourne has left a major question mark over the way forward.

"If it was up to me I would call a halt to it, and that's being honest," said O'Connor. "The game the last day didn't do the series any favours, for obvious reasons. The Australians weren't just going in tackling, they were going in late, as if trying to grind the Irish players into the ground. They were coming down on players in twos and threes. It was basically just bullying."

GAA president Seán Kelly admitted the rules needed to be reviewed, especially regarding the red-carded player being replaced, but O'Connor believes the problems with the series run deeper.

"I'd have several problems with the whole thing," he added. "This is going on at the time of the year when counties are trying to finish up their championships, and it takes two full weeks out of that calendar. I mean the county championship here in Kerry is delayed by two weeks. On top of that it militates against the idea of having any kind of a closed season.

"So it's generally more trouble than it's worth. What is it achieving at the end of the day? It's a glorified challenge game."

Harte was one of the first high-profile managers to speak out against the series, long before this year's Irish team departed for Australia. O'Connor agreed with the Tyrone manager, who reiterated his stance this week, saying "the GAA should not allow itself to be sucked into this disastrous arrangement where our finest players go out to Australia and risk serious injury in a game fraught with danger".

"I'd go along with that," said O'Connor. "I just don't think it's leading anywhere. The Australians don't seem to have bought into the spirit of it. But if there is any way forward, we can forget about teams that are involved in the All-Ireland final. If players lose an All-Ireland final, that's no preparation for playing in it, for obvious reasons. They won't be rested or prepared for it. They'll have to be looking at the players knocked out early on in the championship, because at least they have the chance to finish their championship."

Harte admitted he couldn't stop players from taking part if they wished to, but like O'Connor, he has also been critical of the timing - especially as it clashes with the interprovincial competition.

Still, there are those who believe the series does have a future - even given Australia's 57-point aggregate win this year, and the violence. Dublin manager Paul Caffrey agreed the rules obviously needed to be tightened up, but he didn't see any major reason that future games couldn't repeat the more memorable spectacles of recent years.

"I think it's fair to say that this year the game has regressed as a spectacle," said Caffrey, "and to a sport that you wouldn't like your kids to be watching. But I suppose it still goes back to the players, who see it as a huge honour to be picked. It's the same as playing for your club, your county, or your province. It's a great incentive for the players, especially when it comes to the trip to Australia.

"But I also think people should be careful about over-reacting as well. Things did look to get out of control in the second Test, but if you have the situation where a man is sent off and then allowed to be replaced, I think it's an obvious case of the punishment not fitting the crime.

"So if you take things like the late tackle, and the high tackle, or whatever it is, I don't think the penalties are working in a prohibitive sense. I think the punishments will want to start hurting the teams. That's a big issue. Maybe they should raise the punishment if players do cross the line."

Despite the problems with discipline, Caffrey pointed to some other problems with the latest series: "The fact is Australia won the match by over 50 points, so maybe we should be asking how we could improve our own game, and why it was so many players didn't play up to form. Ireland were poor over there, and more or less got their backsides kicked. But we should push on from that. We don't want to come across as a nation of whingers."

For Armagh manager Joe Kernan, the series has a future if the disciplinary problems are addressed in a serious manner - otherwise the GAA should forget about it. "I don't think the game we saw last Friday has a future," he said. "If we can make an international game out of it then I would be all for it, because it is great for the players, and also good for the association.

"But what happened last Friday put the thing back 20 years. To hear a player like Ronan Clarke retiring from it at the age of 22, something must be wrong. That rugby tackle that they use out there, following through with the pulling of jerseys, and coming down with elbows and knees, that's not on.

"If I thought it was going to continue like that then I wouldn't be advising any of my players to get involved again. But just banging out new rules and doing it right are two different things. But I would love to see it working. The main benefit is for the players, and they are the most important thing at the end of it all."

Such is the nature of the rivalry developing between Ireland and Australia there is reason to believe tensions will spill over in Croke Park next October. Kernan wondered if the game could ever be rid of such tensions.

"Some people like a good row, and a good, physical, hard game is fine. But when people cross the line there has to be a penalty. It really comes down to the rules, and I think right now the rules are allowing this to happen. The Aussies went overboard, big time. But the rules are there to be misinterpreted. It is a physical game, yes, but not to that degree. Some of the tackles were deadly, deadly dangerous. And we can only be too thankful that nobody was seriously hurt. I know some parents who were watching their sons out there, and they weren't happy.

"I enjoy the idea of keeping it going for the players. But if the Aussies don't agree to improving the tackle then we'll have to face up to it and say we're not putting our players at risk anymore."