McGrath stunned by Aussie masterclass
Ireland manager Pete McGrath watched helplessly as his side were given a kicking masterclass by Australia in this morning's Coca-Cola International Rules first Test.
McGrath, who guided Down to two All-Irelands in the 1990s, and his players were left stunned as the Aussies showed an enviable familiarity with the round ball, kicking two goals, 27 overs and 7 behinds for a record-breaking 100-64 win in Perth.
Last year's Series saw the out-of-depth Aussies score just 41 points in each of the Test matches at Croke Park, but Kevin Sheedy had his side's goal-kicking right on the money today.
Staring at a 36-point deficit for next Friday's second Test in Melbourne, McGrath said afterwards: "Any right minded person would say the Series is beyond us.
"It obviously puts us back on our backsides and their (the Australians') athleticism, their power, their ability to kick the ball was probably beyond what we expected it would be."
The traditionally quicker Irish players were the ones left chasing shadows in the second half as Sheedy's men turned a 25-15 first quarter lead into a 76-36 buffer by the end of the third quarter.
Did McGrath ever sense a defeat of this kind? "We knew they selected a mobile, pacy squad for this series and we felt we had the strategies in place to combat that," said the Newry teacher.
"But we simply couldn't match it with them in virtually every area of the field and for long periods we were secondary players in that game."
While Ulster tyros Benny Coulter (18), Ronan Clarke (14) and Sean Cavanagh (13) led the Irish scoring, Aussie boss Sheedy had sixteen players on the scoresheet by the final hooter.
Shannon Grant, Nick Davis, Luke Hodge and Andrew Lovett (15), who was one of the two goalscorers, all bagged a hat-trick of overs apiece.
Sheedy admitted: "We were either going to be not great or fairly exciting and it was pleasing to see a lot of young players put their hands up to have long careers internationally."
Sheedy also had a warning for the crestfallen Irish ahead of the second Test - there's still more to come from his talent-laden squad.
"We had lots of players out there with great speed but we also have players like Chris Judd, Luke Ball and Daniel Wells to come into the side to give us even more speed."
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