INTERNATIONAL RULES: A week in politics has been as laggardly as the Irish cover defence compared to the last seven days in International Rules. Perceptions governing today's second Test of the Foster's series couldn't be more different to those that shaped views going into last Friday's match in Perth.
Ireland have gone from having created the world to being uneasy tenants in Australia's. At the heart of this drastic change has been the home country's huge improvement in using the round ball. Statistics from Perth demonstrate the empirical improvement.
No senior team had previously scored 100 points in an international and, translated into GAA terms (eliminating the one-pointers, or behinds), Ireland were beaten 2-27 to 3-11, an awful whacking, especially for a team whose mission statement emphasised the shooting of three-pointers, or overs.
When Essendon footballer Kepler Bradley apparently guilelessly told local media in Perth that with another two weeks' preparation, "We'd flog them", there were raised eyebrows at the crime against diplomacy.
Now you'd want odds on the Aussies flogging us at Gaelic football if they were given a bit longer with the round ball.
While the opposition has been making all these strides with the biggest challenge the game poses to them, Ireland's progress with the tackle has been minuscule - even, last week, down to a basic grasp of the rules surrounding disposal when tackled.
Time after time Australians were able to break tackles and create the overlap. Whereas the Irish defence was under constant pressure and hardly distinguished itself, the forwards made little attempt to force their opponents to work for possession or in the building of counter-attacks.
There's not much further that can be said about the interchange since the statistics of 62-24 in Australia's favour emerged, but the Irish management seemed tied to the notion that a player had to be struggling to warrant the change - as opposed to the Australian routine of constantly rotating players to ensure no one ran out of gas.
Consequently, you had Irish players admitting that they were flagging before being given a breather, not surprisingly given that some went over half an hour before their first interchange.
There seems little doubt that complacency played a role in the litany of woes, and the trouble with that is that it's not completely a conscious failing.
But essentially Ireland never believed that the home team would manage to make such an impact in year one of the new coach Kevin Sheedy's revolution.
Another alarming aspect of the defeat was that, proportionately, Ireland kicked about half as much as their opponents. This is, of course, a reflection of the diminishing role kicking plays in Gaelic football, but it had major consequences.
If under pressure Ireland can't execute accurate kicks, then they can't mark the ball and without marks there was no opportunity to slow down play and, deeper into the Australian half, create attacking options.
Instead the ball was slung around by hand, jeopardising possession - as well as the wellbeing of the intended recipient of the pass.
Manager Peter McGrath's panel for today's match omitted some expected names.
Michael Meehan, Owen Mulligan and Brian McGuigan are out-and-out forwards who were all but redundant when the team was unable to set up attacking platforms. Eoin Brosnan has more of the perpetual motion the game demands but he struggled to get into the first Test.
Of course the above four could argue they weren't alone in these failings, but McGrath has gone with players who have proven scoring records at this level, even if that wouldn't have been immediately apparent a week ago.
The selection - with Ryan McMenamin, Philip Jordan, Ross Munnelly and Dessie Dolan included - tilts the team from one based on attack to one more conscious of defence and the need for work rate.
Goalkeeper Mickey McVeigh keeps his place and, to be fair, any other decision would have been risky.
McVeigh's intervention saved goals the last day and he was comfortable in the air. No converted outfielder could guarantee that, and even if the re-starts needed to be addressed, the failure wasn't all the goalkeeper's, as his backs were fairly slow to make themselves available.
At yesterday's media conference, Sheedy blustered around questions about his team's propensity for breaking the rules on physical contact, calling on the Irish to do likewise. McGrath soberly said that such a departure would be in nobody's interest, and his Australian counterpart bluffly claimed to be "only joking".
It didn't entirely feel that way at the time.
To be fair, the physical edge that always informs the Australians' play hasn't been a big problem so far, and there are far more pressing issues up Ireland's priority list. It's impossible to be too optimistic about them all being satisfactorily addressed in the space of a week.
IRELAND: Pádraic Joyce (Galway; capt), Michael McVeigh (Down; goalkeeper), Graham Canty (Cork), Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone), Ronan Clarke (Armagh), Colm Cooper (Kerry), Benny Coulter (Down), Bryan Cullen (Dublin), Dessie Dolan (Westmeath), Brian Dooher (Tyrone), Matty Forde (Wexford), David Heaney (Mayo), Philip Jordan (Tyrone), Tom Kelly (Laois), Seán M Lockhart (Derry), Anthony Lynch (Cork), Ciarán McDonald (Mayo), Ciarán McManus (Offaly), Ryan McMenamin (Tyrone), Ross Munnelly (Laois), Seán Óg Ó hAilpín (Cork), Stephen O'Neill (Tyrone), Tomás Ó Sé (Kerry).
AUSTRALIA (from): Andrew McLeod (Adelaide; capt), Dustin Fletcher (Essendon; goalkeeper), Heath Black (Fremantle), Amon Buchanan (Sydney), Trent Croad (Hawthorn), Aaron Davey (Melbourne), Nick Davis (Sydney), Brett Deledio (Richmond), Nathan Eagleton (Western Bulldogs), Daniel Giansiracusa (Western Bulldogs), Lindsay Gilbee (Western Bulldogs), Shannon Grant (Kangaroos), Brent Harvey (Kangaroos), Luke Hodge (Hawthorn), Chris Johnson (Brisbane Lions), Matthew Lappin (Carlton), Andrew Lovett (Essendon), Troy Makepeace (Kangaroos), Darren Milburn (Geelong), Brent Moloney (Melbourne), Dale Morris (Western Bulldogs), Chris Newman (Richmond), Ryan O'Keefe (Sydney), Russell Robertson (Melbourne), Jarrad Waite (Carlton).
AUSTRALIA v IRELAND Telstar Stadium, Melbourne
On TV: RTÉ 1, 10.45am
