Advertisement
Tommy Dickson/INPHO
Fighting Talk

'I fully believe we can claw it back' - Conor McManus

Ireland lost to Australia on a scoreline of 63-53 after the opener in Adelaide.

IRELAND FORWARD CONOR McManus is hopeful his side can fight back from a 10-point deficit to claim victory in the second test of the International Rules series.

Ireland lost to Australia on a scoreline of 63-53 after the opener in Adelaide, as the home side powered to victory with a dominant ‘championship quarter’.

Joe Kernan’s team have it all to do if they’re to retain the Cormac McAnallen Cup, but the series remains alive and an 11-point win in the second test in Perth would be enough to secure victory.

“We’re very much still in the game,” McManus told RTE’s Marty Morrissey after the game.

“There’s 10 points in it and we hope to make a lot of improvements over the next week.

“It’s a big lead but on the flip side of that it’s only three overs. Three points and it’s back to a one point game so that’s the way we have to look at it.

“We have to improve, we’ve a lot of things to work on – just basic simple skills of our game that we probably didn’t execute well enough. We’ve that to work on during the week. If we can sharpen up on that I fully believe we can claw that back.”

The Monaghan sharpshooter was Ireland’s top-scorer in each of the last three series and he finished with an impressive 24 points this morning – more than any other player on the field.

The sweltering conditions didn’t make life easy for the Irish, but McManus refused to blame the weather for Ireland’s defeat.

“I think if you ask any of our lads there’s more in the tank there. We’ve more to give and it’s going to be maybe a wee bit warmer down in Perth next week but we’ve got this under out belts.

“We can store this, put it in the tank and recover as well as we can over the next few days and get back to work on Tuesday or Wednesday in training.”

Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:

10-point victory for Australia over Ireland in International Rules opener

As it happened: Ireland v Australia, International Rules Series First Test

Your Voice
Readers Comments
4
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

    Leave a commentcancel