Ireland thumped Australia in the first International Rules match on Saturday and reports from Down Under say the players took solace in a drink or two…
The first Test of this year’s International Rules Series was a resounding victory for Ireland. With the Series decided by the cumulative score over two games, Ireland’s 22-point lead may be too much for the Aussies to overcome at Croke Park next week.
And according to reports in Australia, some of the AFL players found solace in a few scoops. Quite a few scoops actually.
The Age, a Melbourne paper, reports that staff at Dromoland Castle, where the team were staying, had to visit rooms twice in the early hours of this morning.
‘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.
They also say that some of the players had a night out on the Saturday straight after the match in Cavan too.
The players were given the nod for a few days of relaxation by the management but they have been now told to ‘refocus’ according to a report on the AFL’s own site, with a voluntary training session scheduled for this afternoon now made compulsory. Sounds like there will be a few sore heads at that.
It all sounds relatively harmless but if the Aussies get thumped again on Saturday, the press back home will have a field day.
