GEELONG’S IRISH CONTINGENT are one win away from featuring in the 2024 AFL Grand Final, after the Cats made a flying start to this year’s playoff series today.
Before a crowd of 50,342 at the Adelaide Oval, Mayo’s Oisin Mullin and Laois native Zach Tuohy helped Geelong crush Port Adelaide 138-54.
The opening game of the 2024 AFL Premiership finals saw Geelong cruise to success in their qualifiying final.
Mullin started the game, drafted in for Geelong after Tom Stewart was ruled out through illness. The former GAA Young Footballer of the Year came off injured during the match but had kicked a behind.
Tuohy came on as a sub for Geelong for Gryan Miers and saw his team win to advance to a preliminary final tie on the weekend of 19-21 September, a game where they will enjoy home advantage. Victory there would propel Geelong into the AFL Grand Final on 28 September.
Tuohy, who recently announced he was retiring at the end of the season from AFL, remains on course for a dream conclusion to his Aussie Rules career in Australia. The 34-year-old has been involved for 14 seasons and the record AFL appearance holder for an Irish man, played for the 288th time at that level today. He previously won a Premiership title for 2022 and still has a chance to add a second accolade.
Kerry’s Mark O’Connor, who was also part of that 2022 success with Geelong, didn’t feature today, having been involved recently with the club’s VFL team.
The Irish interest in the opening finals weekend continues tomorrow with Meath’s Conor Nash named as an interchange player for the Hawthorns in their elimination final at the MCG against the Western Bulldogs.
Nash recently signed a five-year contract with the club and will play in a game that starts at 10.40am Irish time and is live on TNT Sports 1.
The weekend’s remaining games on Saturday see Sydney Swans play GWS Giants in the qualifying final at the Sydney Cricket Ground, while Brisbane Lions face Carlton in the elimination final at the Gabba.
This goes for TheJournal as well as TheScore, would it kill ye to just have a poll with “yes” and “no” being the only two options?
Yea… I mean, no. Ah, I can’t decide. Is there another option other than kill?
Gatty Gone Batty
Can’t wait for Ireland versus Wales. Should be hot
Gatland has lost it and put it all on the line with 10 welsh… 10 of de same welsh team that was beat 3 times by Australia in the past year… Massive psychological boost to the Aussies seeing BOD dropped.. Shocking stuff
4 times, Australia won the series here 3-0 and beat them once in cardiff in November. Roberts and co are a class act with great skills but do the Wallabies genuinely fear them? not that much.
Roberts and BOD carved up the Saffas 4 years ago only for injury to break their devastating partnership. i cant believe Gatland hasn’t decided to resurrect it to launch wave after wave against the Wallaby centres who are not the biggest around! Big missed opportunity that could prove costly
4 years ago is a long long time in rugby ! Who heard of North, Tupuric , Murray, Zebo 4 years ago!
Their mums
O’Driscoll has had to babysit Davies for the whole tour and act as an extra forward half the time. Lions have played such a defensive game they haven’t had the ball enough for O’Driscoll to do his usual magic stuff. No justification whatsoever to drop him. disgraceful decision!
Not even on the bench though!!
Totally agree, O’Driscoll should have been on the bench at the very least. Is this The Lions Tour or the Welsh Tour ??
First a total insult to remove him from the squad. O’Driscoll has been doing the donkey work because Davies has been out of his depth in this tour. A battering ram alongside O’Driscoll frees him up & for that reason the decision is crazy. Roberts or Tuilagi would be perfect partner from the guys available. Also his huge captaincy experience will be a big loss in such a pressure cooker.
This was always going to happen, Gatland should never have been put in charge. It’s not a good idea to put a coach who is in charge of one of the four home nations. He will always be biased toward his own players at the expense of picking the wrong team. Leaving out the previous and current Ireland captains when you loose the guy who you had chosen as captain is madness this is all going to come back and bit him in the ass
I understand him being dropped. Don’t understand why Tuilagi was not used when Roberts was unavailable but now makes bench ahead of BOD.
Oh you do? Explain to me why he was dropped then? Davies isn’t a better player in any sense. BOD made him look like a child in the 6 nations. Davies hasn’t even gotten the ball out as far as BOD so far. Joke.
Exactly. Why have a like for like battering ram on the bench?
The news was definitely a bit of a shock, he didn’t have a great game last week (at least with the ball) but I felt the mistakes came from trying to develop something when the (very) limited game plan was producing nothing.
I thought the captaincy would have kept him in the team.
If the Lions hand the ball to the Wallabies for most of the game again they will loose without Warburton, Heaslip and O’Driscoll to hunt for the ball on the ground.
the right call in my opinion (has not had the greatest of tours) but probably could have found room on bench (though he is not known as an impact sub) Think Tuilagi should be starting
As harsh a call it is given the stature of the man, I believe it to be the right one. BOD either plays or he doesn’t , what with only one player covering 11 through to 15 ( Tuilagi ), BOD on the bench would be impossible, he is the wrong side of 30 to cover midfield & especially the wings. Realistically if he was on the bench how would the current 11 to 15 be juggled to facilitate him at 13?!
Whatever about not starting him picture the scenario – 15/20 minutes to go and it’s a 5/6 point game either way. Wallabies look over and see Tualangi stripping off. Big, fast, good in a straight line. You can handle him once you keep your shape…..
Or they could look over and see BOD, last time Lion and one of the greatest ever with more tricks than Paul Daniels up his sleeve. All of a sudden they’re all thinking ‘I hope that’s sheperds pie in my knickers’ Boo on you Mr. Gatland, not just for your treatment of the best ever but also for blowing our best chance of a series win in 16 years….
Cant wait to see Gatland and The Welsh Dragons’ arses whipped at the weekend
I thought there was 3 irish and 2 english on the team
wow!
Correct call the mileage is there so its time for a fresh man
An even better call was dropping heaslip talk about a man living on a reputation
The only call that was strange was dropping Tom youngs at hooker
Overall I think lions will win and
Gatland will be vindicated
@donal Cronin. While your own mileage may be visible BOD is not. He has put in a greater effort than any other lion, see his tackle count. He’s had to play with a brain dead Davies too
BOD has lost weight to be able to compete in the modern game
It’s a struggle when he meets the big men of rugby
I’m afraid we have seen the best of him
Remember Muhammad Ali!