A drunken night out has ended with Australian players hauled before team management and reminded of their responsibilities to an International rules series in Ireland already hanging by a thread.
Several players had a boozy Sunday-night night out at a nightclub in the town of Limerick, before retiring to a room of one of the players at the team’s Dromoland Castle hotel in Ennis in the early hours of Monday morning.
Hotel staff asked the hard-partying players to turn down their music about 5am, before having to return 15 minutes later to again insist they desist from making noise. A vase was heard smashing, with others in the building woken up.
It was the second straight night of heavy drinking by the players after they were beaten in the series opener on Saturday night.
AFL deputy chief executive Gillon McLachlan, AFL operations manager Mark Evans and coach Michael O’Loughlin hauled the players into a team meeting after breakfast, where they were told it was now time to refocus.
The AFL insists the incident was not a major one. No players will be sent home, avoiding the controversy of the 2006 tour when Brendan Fevola was told to pack his bags after an incident with a barman at a Galway pub.
The AFL is expected to officially comment on the events of the night at training later on Monday.
The tourists had made a long bus trip from Cavan to Dromoland Castle in Ennis on Sunday. The team will remain at the castle until Tuesday when it returns to Dublin for the final leg of the tour.
The future of the International rules concept will be discussed at length on Wednesday when McLachlan meets his GAA counterparts.
[quote=“Gman, post: 849500, member: 112”]
It was the second straight night of heavy drinking by the players after they were beaten in the series opener on Saturday night.[/quote]
Not to mention the nights in Coppers the week before. You can take the native aussie out of Oz…
I see Aidan O’Shea is another one “torn” between playing this shite or to concentrate on clubs first ever county final the following day. Any player that prioritizes this, or in any way allows it to affect his preparations for a county final is an absolute dick head.
The dope was actually consideringplaying the game as he felt fine after Saturday nights “Test”. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with these lads, can they really be that far disconnected for the ordinary Club player and the Club game?
[quote=“Thrawneen, post: 850075, member: 129”]I’ve gotten hold of a free ticket for Saturday and shall be heading along to Dublin 3 to cheer on the Boys in Green.
Come on Ireland.[/quote]
Get in early for the shinty as well mate.
The first test of the 2013 Senior Hurling/Shinty International Series involving Ireland and Scotland will take place this Saturday, October 26 at 4.15pm in Croke Park.
This match will be a curtain raiser to the second Irish Daily Mail International Rules test between Ireland and Australia which gets underway at 7pm.
The Hurling/Shinty series is played on a home and away basis and the return game will be played in Bught Park, Inverness on Saturday, November 2.
The Irish Hurling/Shinty senior team will be managed this year by John Meyler (Cork) and Michael Walshe (Kilkenny) once again.
Tickets, €25 for Adults and €5 for U16’s, for the upcoming doubleheader in Croke Park can be purchased online at gaa.ie/tickets, Tickets.ie outlets and from Centra and SuperValu stores.
The Irish panel for this coming Saturday is as follows;
