Dublin footballer Michael Darragh Macauley is backing calls from the Kerry County Board to scrap the International Rules series. Delegates in the Kingdom voted unanimously against the continuation of the annual tests between Ireland and Australia.
An announcement is due next week on the venues, dates and format for the 2014 games Down Under but doubts have been cast over the continuation of the clashes after a hugely one-sided 2013 series. Speaking at the Opel Kit for Clubs 2014 launch, Opel GAA Ambassador Macauley was particularly forthright when asked by 98FM Sport for his thoughts on whether the series should continue.
“Everyone saw the last compromise rules and it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t a good enough spectacle. The way it stands, it has no future. Unless they (GAA/AFL) address it and go about it in a different manner, it has no future as it stands.”
The GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year feels the Association should focus more on another competition in which interest has suffered massively over the last 30 years.
“To be honest what I’m more disappointed in is the Interprovincial Championships and the lack of publicity and effort going into it because it’s some of the best football that I’ve been involved in, in the last two years. We’ve had some cracking matches.”
The Railway Cup, as it’s also known, attracted huge crowds decades ago when the deciders were played on St. Patrick’s Day. Since the 1990s there has been a massive decline in attendances but Maculey feels the GAA can do something to revive the once great competition.
“These matches are getting played in front of less than a hundred people and it’s really the top notch players of each province. There’s not enough (promotion) push gone into the games at all. I think it’s something that really has to be addressed by the GAA. If it’s going to be played the way it is, it’s just not good enough.”
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