GAA Talking points: Will top players create a buzz? (2024)

Last week, the Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne ran an online poll asking their Australian readers if they would watch the International Rules series. Voters had two choices: Yes, the best of the best are playing; No, I couldn’t care less. The Yes vote was ahead at 61 per cent.

The content of the question, though, was the key to the result because a player has to have been made an All Australian (equivalent of an All-Star) at least once in order to be selected. Australia’s best are playing in tomorrow’s first Test against Ireland in the Adelaide Oval. If they weren’t, the public interest could have been embarrassing.

The AFL have at least grasped the importance of selection in selling International Rules to the public. The embarrassment of the 2013 series in Ireland was a turning point in those attitudes. Selecting the first all-indigenous Australian outfit added a sense of novelty to the event but Ireland won by a record 173-72 aggregate score.

Australia picking their top players has definitely increased the competitiveness — Australia won by ten points in 2014, with Ireland edging the 2015 contest by four points.

Holding the series in November has allowed more flexibility and freedom for Irish players while extending the Series to two Tests again — especially after another gap year — has given it more meaning.

Players will always love to represent their country — Ben Brown, who scored 67 goals for the Kangaroos in the 2017 AFL season, ended his honeymoon in Iceland early to join up with the squad — but connecting this game with the public consciousness continues to be a major struggle. And that connection won’t get any stronger here tomorrow with RTÉ beginning their TV coverage at 5am.

Kilcar trying to break new ground

Kilcar opened their new floodlit training pitch last week. The previous week, the club had won the senior league title, which secured the league-championship double for the first time in their history. That Donegal Championship was the club’s first in 24 years but Kilcar are now aiming to break new ground by winning a first Ulster title.

Their impressive victory against Scotstown in the quarter-final underlined the potential within this side but Kilcar will need to buck the trend of history if they are to defeat Slaughtneil this evening and reach a first Ulster club final.

In the history of the Ulster club championship, one of the defining trends has been the poor strike rate for Donegal’s clubs. The only Donegal team to win the Ulster title was St Joseph’s, an amalgamation of Bundoran and Ballyshannon, way back in 1975.

In 2010, Naomh Conaill became the first team from the county to reach a provincial final since Killybegs in 1991. Glenswilly reached an Ulster final back in 2013, which they lost to Ballinderry, but Donegal clubs have only contested five finals in the 49-year history of the competition. Slaughtneil are favourites to win in Celtic Park this evening but Kilcar have got into a habit of making history in the last few weeks.

Mullinalaghta out to make the most of their big opportunity
One of the great club football odysseys over the past two seasons has been the journey travelled by Mullinalaghta St Columba’s. The club secured their first Longford senior football title in 66 years last season before becoming just the fifth team from the county to contest a Leinster club final. They didn’t just stumble into the last four either as they took down Stradbally of Laois, and St Loman’s Mullingar.

They lost the semi-final to Dublin giants St Vincent’s but their remarkable run in Longford and Leinster has continued into 2017. Mullinalaghta’s seven-point win against Carlow’s Éire Óg two weeks ago has set them up with another clash against St Loman’s tomorrow.

It has been a great run but a lot of people from the area know all about the provincial club experience. Straddling the Longford-Cavan border, the other half of the parish is in Gowna, who won seven Cavan senior championships between 1988 and 2002. The half-parish of Mullinalaghta are making the most of their opportunity on the big stage.