WHEN JOE KERNAN announced the 2017 Irish International Rules squad in Croke Park this morning, the major point of discussion was the absence of Dublin players from his plans.
Dublin, the three-in-a-row All-Ireland champions who are widely regarded as one of the greatest sides of all-time, have cast a long shadow over the rest of the country in recent times and haven’t suffered a championship defeat in over three years.
Kernan indicated he spoke to numerous players from the capital in recent weeks, but Jim Gavin’s outfit will have no representatives on the plane for the two-game test series Down Under due to a combination of injury, work and club commitments.
“Of course it is (disappointing),” he said in Croke Park today. “The quality of their players, I think we spoke to ten of them.
“But, in fairness to the fellas, all of the commitment they’ve given, all they’ve won this last three years, the way they’ve behaved, the way they’ve carried themselves and the way they’ve performed, something had to give.
“They had to give their commitment to their club and some of those players are dual players so they’re playing every week.
“Some of them have work commitments, some of them have new jobs, a couple of injuries. Jack (McCaffrey) would have been there, Bernard (Brogan) would have been there. Bernard developed a problem again.”
Diarmuid Connolly, James McCarthy, Philly McMahon, John Small and Con O’Callaghan would also have potentially been involved had they not been in county final action this weekend.
Mayo have the highest representation on the panel with four, but there are others Kernan would have included from the All-Ireland finalists had it not been for injury.
“Lee Keegan was definitely in there, Andy Moran, Tom Parsons, Colm Boyle, they all have injuries.”
But the 2002 All-Ireland winning manager is confident the group of players named are good enough to do the business next month.
“You’d love to have them,” Kernan continued. “But, wait a second, don’t take anything away from the boys that we have here.
“If you look at that forward line, Conor McManus, Michael Murphy, who’s going around like a child in a toy-shop at the minute. He has no injuries, I’ve never seen him looking fitter and his attitude, toughness, and skill level is unbelievable.
“Paul Geaney, Conor Sweeney, young Niall Murphy from Sligo – he’s done awful well. He played himself onto the squad, without a doubt, with his performances for us. Niall Sludden, he’s been a sensation since he’s come up here.
“His running, his skill level, his handling, his quick-thinking. That’s what we’re looking for. Speed, mobility, good kicking, and good mental awareness.
“Shane Walsh, he has so much potential. I just said I wanted to take the hand-cuffs off him and just let him out and play. Hopefully that’s what you’ll get.
“And then around the middle of the field we have Gary Brennan, Peace Hanley, Kevin Feeley, Enda Smith. So we have a load of good ball players. If we can get the ball up there we’ll cause problems.”
Another noticeable absentee was Conor McKenna, the ex-Tyrone prodigy quickly making a name for himself with AFL side Essendon.
Kernan was hugely impressed with McKenna’s form in training, but he was cruelly struck down with an ankle injury this past week.
“I was really looking forward to seeing him play. He showed glimpses here. He’d get a ball, three men would go to tackle him, and he’d just give a shimmy and be gone. That was in wet conditions here. On a dry ball out in Australia…
“The reason we took three boys in this time was that over here in Ireland we felt we could do enough here. But going out there we felt we needed the experience of players out there. To have those three boys, they would certainly not want to play bad against their professional friends or enemies they play against every day.
“I was talking to Zach Tuohy on the way up in the car and he’s really looking forward to it. I was talking to Pearce Hanley a couple of weeks ago and he’s looking forward to it.
“Unfortunately for Conor it’ll be a month before he’s back. So Essendon will probably give him a buzz tomorrow and tell him to get back out there because there will be pre-season in a month and they’ll want him right for that.”
The Crossmaglen native is expected to add a further two names after tonight’s training session in Croke Park, which will leave him with a 23-man squad for the trip.
His contacts in Australia have indicated the Aussies will bring a more technical running game, and Kernan has cut his cloth to suit.
“The Aussies are changed a wee bit,” he stated. “They’ve a few more smaller men and the word from out there is that they will be a wee bit more ball-skilled and a wee bit more mobile.
“They had a lot of big guys, and, now, the big guys caused us loads of problems the last day. It’s a mixture of both.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get in and get after them. We will go man to man, as always. Any team I’ve had, we’ve always gone man to man. And we’ll move the ball long and fast as much as possible.
“The one time we need to change it is when…the Aussies are good when they make a mark in the middle of the field and then make a 20 yard pass that gets them in towards the D. That’s what we’re going to try to do, to do the same to them.
“When we get in around the ‘D’, the skill levels of our boys and the shooting ability, we’ll probably put a lot more of them over than they will.”
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