THE MIDDLE THIRD:The International Rules series brings something a bit different to the normal GAA season. I played in three series and I have nothing but good memories of those days, writes DARRAGH Ó SÉ

THE INTERNATIONAL Rules series is back and I for one give it a welcome. At this time of the year it brings something a bit different to the GAA season and it shortens the winter. I played in three series and I have nothing but good memories of those days.

TG4 are doing an enjoyable series at the moment of Aussie Gold and my favourite moment so far has been the sight of Joe McNally getting involved with two Aussie subs. Joe is up for it but quickly realises he’s not at home playing with St Anne’s. These boys are serious. So he drops the fists and starts kicking. That’s what it is all about. Inventing ways to survive and prosper.

You learned early on to be cute and tough. I remember John O’Keeffe, the Irish manager, got the idea for my second series that he would throw me in at full back. I wasn’t too impressed with the idea and was even less impressed when the Aussies sent Barry Hall in to mark me. Apart from being a man mountain, Hall was aggressive and he was a trained boxer. Trouble.

The first thing was that a ball broke about 10 or 15 yards away from us and I busted a gut to get there first. I had no hope if I got there second. And I had even less hope if Hall and I got there at the same time. So I sprinted out toward the Cusack Stand as if my life depended on it. Even at that I remember thinking as I got to within about five yards of the ball, and could hear Hall’s footsteps shaking the earth behind me, that if I picked the ball up I was dead.

So just as I got to it I stuck the foot out and did a Johann Cruyff style pull back. It was so perfect and so filled with fear that my gear almost kept on going after my body had stopped. I avoided the hit but I could feel dead Kerry footballers spinning in their graves. Ground ball might not be the perfect cup of tea for people who don’t like the series but it has got us out of trouble many times.

My own first experience of the games was on the tour to Australia in 2001. I was in a difficult situation as the club were going well and Séamus MacGearailt asked me to stay and train with the boys and John O’Keeffe on the other hand said he needed me in Australia. In the end I decided to go and it was a tough decision, but one I never regretted. We trained twice a day in Australia and I came back fitter and tougher than I would have been if I stayed home for the month.

Seeing Australia and getting away for a month of winter is a fairly impressive carrot to be dangling on the end of the stick. I had those club commitments in 2001 which meant that I couldn’t stampede towards the airport but any other year if I had been asked did I want a month having the crack and playing a bit of ball in Australia I’d have just asked where did I have to go, who did I need to impress and what did I have to do.

In a time when things are getting tough for the GAA all talk of pay for play has rightly disappeared but the GAA should look at travel as a bonus for players. Not just the Australian trips and All Star game but maybe pick a couple of big hurling and football league games each year and play them in America. The trips are also a way of recognising great players form weaker counties. I remember Kevin O’Brien being a great player in those series. I’m looking forward to seeing the likes of Paddy Keenan and Leighton Glynn in action for Ireland. Serious players who don’t get enough big-time recognition.

There has been some talk that there was a Kerry boycott of this year’s series. I don’t think that’s true and I hope not. I like to think we are bigger than that down here. I know Declan O’Sullivan and Kieran Donaghy were training with the group but had to step back for club commitments. I was surprised there weren’t more Kerry players than that involved but haven’t heard anything about a boycott.

If anything we thought The Bomber would do his duty and get a few more on. If he is to seek re-election he’ll have to try harder!

Anthony Tohill is a smart man and was an excellent exponent of the game in his day and a game of this magnitude is a huge thing. Anybody who stayed away will have missed out.

I always enjoyed the chance on those trips to meet up with fellas from other counties. I roomed in Australia with Ciarán Whelan of Dublin and we had the best of crack. He’d call me the Mucksavage or the SpudGobbler. I was more helpful and polite and often when Ciarán would be homesick I would agree to go to the pub with him to keep him company.

I have great memories of high old times with Dessie Dolan. Michael Donnellan, Pádraic Joyce and others. I took off once with Brendan Devenney of Donegal to see the Melbourne Cup. We didn’t see a horse let alone a race but we had the best of crack.

The fights. I remember meeting Ciarán Carey, the great Limerick hurler, on the way out from Galway a few years ago and Ciarán was disappointed there hadn’t been more fights. I think that’s a fairly natural reaction. Fights have been a feature of the game over the years and while you wouldn’t look forward to one you’d always be half expecting a row to break out at any minute.

We’d actually knock a bit of crack out of the whole mythology of the rows. Fellas would be tough but apprehensive about them and we’d wind each other up. I remember once chatting with Pádraic Joyce and Joe Bergin of Galway, two good fellas to have a laugh with and I had to head off to get a bit of physio. I said I better head and Joe asked where I was going. I told Joe I was going to the dentist for a fitting for my special gum shield. Joe took one look at Padraic and said ‘hang on will you, I’d better get one of them’.

Another day we were playing and coming up towards half-time the game suddenly got rough. Paul McGrane got his right eye split open and the game turned nasty very quickly. I was sitting on the bench and happy to be there. Suddenly there was a communication from management. They were sticking somebody on. Tony Wattana the New Zealander who went on to work in Croke Park was bringing the messages from the management. He shouted to Derek Savage to warm up. Derek took a look at the mayhem in front of him and shouted back to Tony. “Only two or three minutes to half-time Tony and I’m not warmed up. Probably best to leave it to the second half.”

There were little anomalies though. The Irish refs will always do their best to be fair and impartial. The Aussie refs will screw you into the ground. Give you nothing.

I’m looking forward to the game on Saturday night in Limerick. I’m interested to see how Tommy Walsh looks and how he plays after the guts of a year away.

In the GAA we pride ourselves on how we train and we like to say we are as professional as anybody but the Aussie Rules players have been doing weights and core work since their early teens and there is a toughness and hardness to them when you come up against them which is a different dimension.

I know from talking to Tadhg Kennelly that when he went back Down Under last year after the All-Ireland he found his fitness was a good bit off what was needed for the pro game. I’m looking forward to seeing Michael Shields in an environment he seems like a natural for and I want to see Benny Coulter’s natural style once or twice more this year.

Ireland are at home. There is a trip Down Under looming soon. The winter is shorter than we thought.

All set for the perfect storm.

“We like to say we are as professional as anybody but the Aussie Rules players have been doing weights and core work since their early teens and there is a toughness and hardness to them when you come up against them which is a different dimension