The number of team handballs permitted before the ball must be kicked has been limited to four, after the previous series saw Australia use disposals by hand to effectively run the ball out of defence.
“Some of those things come back to bite you the other way,” Malthouse said of the rule change on Wednesday.
“It’s all very well and good to try and limit one of our great strengths which is our hand pass but on the same token, there’s not two rules out there where we’re only allowed four and the Irish can have as many as they like. They’ve also got to limit their hand passing … so what goes around comes around with regard to rule changes."
Malthouse said a limit on hand passing would not be an undue disruption for an Australian team that was being drilled to dispose the ball by foot in any case.
"You’re got to be able to adjust to it. This group hasn’t been trained to use excessive hand passing so we will modify our training accordingly. I’m sure these players will adjust to it pretty quickly.”
Australian assistant coach and former International Rules player Nathan Buckley said he believed that the rule change was necessary to secure the future of the series.
“The rules are going to change from time to time,” Buckley said.
“We want it to be a competitive series. We know how different the ball is for us and the tackle is for the Irish, so there are compromises made by both sides for the series to go ahead.”
As for round ball skills, the Magpie coach insisted that he would be entrusting the duty of teaching the squad how to kick to his assistant coaches Buckley, Glen Jakovich and Matthew Lappin, all of whom were former players of the hybrid game.
However he did quip that he had probed Collingwood’s Irish recruit Martin Clarke for information before he returned home. Clarke will miss out on playing in the series due to an ankle injury. Tadhg Kennelly will also miss out due to groin and shoulder surgery.
“I’ve stolen as much out of Martin Clarke as I could," said Malthouse. "And the best news about Martin Clarke is, he’s not playing. And he tells me Tadhg Kennelly isn’t playing either.”
