Man of the Match from the 1st Test?(International Rules)

pipelaser

Cluxton gets my Vote.
Safe pair of hands and excellent delivery, we'd be in serious trouble without him.

Leyton Glynn was prob the best of the Irish outfield players, Brave, Composed and had a great grasp of the rules.

Tommy Walsh bottled it, think he felt like the world was watching him.

Diabhal Beag

Dunno if Cluxton would be my MOM. Thought Glynn and Kennelly played better.

Goode did deserve MOM.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Goode deservedly won it. From our point of view though I'd would definitely have given it to Kennelly.

olaguopa

boyd, swan, montagna and goodes for the aussies.

Thought Begley and Brendan Murphy were good

ShamoBuc

Cluxton ? Seriously don't think so. Tommy Walsh - he has clearly gotten worse since going down under!
Goode - simple choice.

theoneeyedman

Cluxton??? good deliveries???what game were you watching???

hw many times did he kick the ball out over he sideline both from the hadn and the ground??? not a great player on the ball either imo-if we were going to play ballthrough the keepers hands we should ave played an outfield player in goal or asomeone like quirke who is good on the ball

Mossin

How can u say Cluxton?! I was at the game, and he was awful...he slowed the game down too much, which only benefitted the Aussies, as they were far superior at catching the high ball than us, which is an awful thing to have to admit. Ironically Cluxton was better when he ran with the ball than he was with his kick-outs, which went over the side-line far too often for a goalkeeper of his calibar. The idea behind what he was trying was good, but his execution was horrible!

Canty played well, but if he attempted to catch the ball he could have dominated the defence instead of punching through the ball everytime...it just gave the ball back to the Aussies on a regular basis..

The 4 players in the Irish team with Aussie Rules experience didnt come to the fore enough...Begley and Kennelly were the best on show for the Irish side, by a long shot, and the latter didnt play enough of the 72 minutes for my liking!

Tommy Walsh was slow, and laboured, not only in possession but also when it came to simple aspects of the game such as handpassing and picking the ball from the ground, as well as evading a tackle...I know in the compromise rules tackling is different, but as a player more used to it than the majority of the Irish team he was a joke imo.

Stephen McDonnell played well, and scored quite a bit, but didnt get enough ball either. But he also didnt look fit, and seemed to be carrying a lot of excess weight...as captain though he lead the team pretty well...

Sean Cavanagh had a terrible day with the boot...I'd rate him as a good kicker of points from 45 metres out, and on Saturday he was extremely poor, as was Walsh tbh....his last attempt said enough!

I could continue to berate the Irish teams performance until the cows come home but I wont...there are positives in the team, but unless the team shows confidence in each other and kicks the ball to collect 'MARKS' we wont beat the Aussies in Croker. Its pointless handpassing into space to a player, only to see that player creamed in the tackle and the ball overturned. Too many times we didnt play the ball to the free man who could have taken a mark. The Aussies trust their teammates and pass to the nearest man 20 metres away as long as it gets the mark, which 95% of the time it did against us....

Tohill needs to get a grip, and tell our boys to play football [not the awful attempts at soccer that were on display at times on saturday] and to believe in each others ability, cos I honestly believe that the Irish team is good enough to overturn the 7 point deficit, as long as we stick to the principles of our game, and utilise the Mark more effectively.

/end rant....

OT, MOM was Goode without a shadow of a doubt

User Friendly

A man of the match award?? FFs..... certainly no irish player should get any award for the dismal performance sat eve.:(

Stephen cluxton was poor saturday.