FOUR IRELAND PLAYERS could face a club versus country dilemma before next month’s International Rules series but manager Paul Earley insists he will assess the situation if a fixtures clash arises.
Ireland play Australia in Perth on November 22nd with the Irish squad due to depart on November 12th.
Michael Murphy plays for his club Glenswilly in next Sunday’s Donegal county senior final and if they triumph, they will advance to the Ulster senior club football championship.
Derry’s Chrissy McKaigue is already involved with his club Slaughtneil in the Ulster championship as is Monaghan’s Conor McManus with Clontibret. Tipperary’s Ciaran McDonald is the last of the four Irish players still involved in club championship with his side Aherlow.
Club Action
“We have to play it by ear, week to week, and see what happens but right now they are available. We know that Michael is playing a club final on Sunday. We know that if they win they have a game the following Sunday, which is still the weekend before we leave. If they win that then it goes to the 16th.
“Chrissy McKaigue I think plays on the ninth against Cavan Gaels. The previous week Conor McManus plays against Gall’s on the second and I think Tipperary, that’s pretty fluid at the moment, their championship.
“We have to play it week by week. One of the reasons we have picked a bigger squad is (because) clearly we have to be fluid.”
Is Earley prepared for the prospect of his captain not travelling?
“At this stage I’m not even thinking about that. A lot of things have to happen before that. They still have to win three games effectively.”
Earley admits it was difficult to cut players who had been to the forefront in recent years.
“Very difficult. A number of players weren’t available last year because of injury and a couple of other factors so it was very difficult. That’s what we wanted, our selection meeting last week, we had two of them, we probably ended up with six hours between the two of them and we would have met every week after training.
“We wanted it to be difficult because you’re looking at the best players that are available to you. It came down to narrow margins and very tight, tough calls.”
Allstars
Only five members of this year’s Allstar team are included but Earley has defended that decision.
“That’s fair enough. But you have to look at a number of the other players and they did make themselves available? Did we think they were suitable to the game? There were a lot of players on form who weren’t necessarily Allstars.
“If you look back on the history of the series as to what numbers came from the Allstars team, I’m not sure. But I think if you add this year’s and last year’s, it probably goes up a bit higher. Conor McManus was on last year. Seán Cavanagh was on last year.”
