It may or may not be a sign of their total commitment but the Australians are certainly here in force – including wives, girlfriends, and even young children.
Speaking at their first squad training session in Croke Park ahead of Saturday’s one-Test series against Ireland, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan admitted that one way of enticing the All-Australian line-up to Dublin was to make it all-inclusive.
“I don’t shy away from the fact that we didn’t do the best by our game and our country with the way we performed in 2013,” said McLachlan. “So we had a good think about that, because this series is incredibly important to us and we knew we had to revamp it.
‘Selection critera’
“So we went back to our best players, best coaches and changed the selection criteria and got buy-ins from the best players (for 2014).
“We have a three-time premiership coach running this team, two of the best coaches in the league assisting him and they are All Australian players here.
“They won a great game in Perth last year, but to get the All Australians to come and play here we said we’d look after you and your families, and they have had an incredible time. We have certainly reignited the passion in our playing group for this series.”
One of the players to bring along his wife and two young children is David Mundy: “I think the way the selection has gone, picking the best players in Australia, certainly helped me when making my decision. Being able to play with the best in our league, experience life for two weeks with them, was a big tick on my list.
“I’ve brought my wife, and have two children under two, which made the flights a little bit more hectic. I’ve had to apologise to the boys numerous times for crying babies and things but I’m more than happy to get them across and let them experience it as well.”
For Luke Bruest, last year’s 10-point victory over Ireland has also added extra incentive: if anything, he says, Australia have prepared even better than 2014 to ensure they extend that winning streak.
“We had had some quality training sessions in America, and we will have the same thing over here,” said Bruest. “We should be a lot better prepared and I guess it’s carrying on from last year in terms of having the same coaches who can work out what we did last year and where we didn’t go so well.”
