The international rules is just around the corner.
There’s a lot of differences in it, the athleticism, the tackling, the scoring.
Players have to make serious adjustments to their games, forget elements of GAA that is drilled into them for a couple of matches and re-learn the whole thing.
Well, that is unless you’re Conor McManus.
Manager Joe Kernan was speaking at the announcement of Eirgrid’s sponsorship of team Ireland as they travel down to Australia and he made it very clear that he had no plans to change anything about McManus’ playing style.
When asked about if he’ll be looking for athleticism over technique when announcing his squad, Kernan made it very clear where he stood on the matter:
“No, no wait a second. Conor McManus, you’re not going to change Conor McManus from the player that he is.
“He’s the best finisher in the country and I talked about Bernard Brogan earlier on there, you’re not going to change those boys but it’s the way you get the ball to them.
“Make it easier for them that the ball goes in better.
“The boys that have the pace, between the two 50s, that is where these engine boys are and that is where (Ireland’s three AFL players) will be.”
Kernan is optimistic about the fighting spirit of the side that will go over to Australia saying that they’ve always represented themselves well:
“Any Irish team that has gone over, they never lay down even in the last two years or four years we didn’t play well but we finished strong.”
The side is set to be without Lee Keegan when they travel to Adelaide and Perth as the Westport man ruled himself out through injury but there will still be plenty of Dublin and Mayo players on show:
“There are 18 players that I asked from (Dublin and Mayo) there’s some of them waiting to come back with work commitments, there’s three or four with injury problems and there is one or two that can’t commit because of work.
“I’d be hoping at least four from each,” Kernan concluded.
