By Saturday morning, we’ll know who the winner is.
With a more viewer-friendly time of 8:45 am, there will hopefully be more than 39,600 people watching the second test of the International Rules.
Whenever the test series comes around there are always question marks over whether it should be scrapped or not. Is the interest there?
It certainly didn’t help that there were no Dublin players in the squad this time around, for valid reasons [work commitments, impending All Stars trips, etc.], and that the series has lost its bite over the years.
But it is still important. It is not often that our sport is given a foreign platform and it certainly means a lot to the players that chose to travel.
Conor McManus, Ireland’s saviour in the first test, was speaking to Sportsfile ahead of the decider and was asked about what he wanted to gain from the experience to Australia:
“The fact that the International Rules series is a one-off thing at the end of the year, unfortunately, there tends to be uncertainty hanging over the International Rules and it is disappointing to see that but the fact that it is a one-off thing it means that this group of players probably won’t be together again but the time that we are together it’s very enjoyable.”
“Any time you are playing in the EirGrid International Rules series it’s a great experience. Luckily enough this is my fourth series to play with Ireland and you would jump at the chance.
“You’d do whatever you could to be involved in the International Rules team and obviously, it collides with club fixtures and things like that back home which is unfortunate but any lad that could be here is here and is more than happy to be here.”
This is an unbelievable experience for the players and something different for the fans to watch, why take it away when you have the chance to showcase your sport to an audience 16,000 kilometres away?
