AN EX-IRISH rugby international who received a five-year ban for attacking a spectator has been made tackling coach for Ireland's International Rules squad to tour Australia.
Both teams will announce their squads on Wednesday for the revived series, to be played later this month, and the Irish have appointed Trevor Brennan to better prepare them for Australia's traditionally more physical approach.
Brennan initially received a life ban from rugby union after he attacked an Ulster fan in the terrace while playing for French club Toulouse before their European Rugby Cup game in January last year.
It was later reduced to five years and Brennan has since retired, but the 110 kilogram lock forward who won 13 caps for Ireland has now officially been added to manager Sean Boylan's coaching backroom for the hybrid game.
A former representative and native of Irish province Leinster, Brennan also helped prepare his country for the last series in 2006, which Australia won on aggregate. Ireland won the first match in Galway 48-40, before Australia overcame the deficit in Dublin, triumphing 69-31 at Croke Park.
The series has been revived this year, after being shelved following Australia's visit two years ago when the Irish alleged excessive on-field violence by the tourists and expressed disappointment at their behaviour after an off-field tangle between Brendan Fevola and an Irish barman in Galway.
"What Sean wanted me to do was to work on the tackle because a lot of the lads are not used to the whole tackle situation in the game," Brennan told the Irish Independent.
"If you look over the last two series, when they (the Irish) have taken the tackle they have tended to react badly to it.
"I'm trying to change the culture of how to react.
"In rugby you get tackled, get hit hard but you just get up and get on with it.
"I was hoping to bring that part into the game."
The AFL has moved to prevent a repeat of the spiteful 2006 series this year by ruling that suspensions earned during the series will be served during next year's AFL home-and-away season.
But Brennan said the Irishmen also needed to learn how to handle Australia's robust approach.
"When it gets physical sometimes the Irish guys have reacted to being tackled and hit hard and it's just about the Irish guys adjusting to the culture of the tackle," he said. "Gaelic football has had the shoulder tackle but over the last 20 years has got a lot softer, to my mind, than what it would have been in the 1980s and early 1990s.
"There is less contact and the referee is blowing for lesser offences and producing far more cards.
"That's what Gaelic footballers have become used to, so it's a case of just getting them more accustomed to the hit, taking the tackle and making the tackle in those (training) sessions."
Still based in Toulouse, Brennan will return to Ireland and conduct a two-day session this weekend.
He has been studying up on AFL and said the hybrid game is weighted more heavily in Australia's favour.
"I'd say the game is about 80 per cent more aligned to AFL, the use of the round ball can't make up that much ground."
