Score: Oxford GAA Lots – OUARFC Not many
Saturday 19th saw the annual OUARFC foray into the world of mystery and unknown. I’m not talking about Footy trip, but the baffling and strange sport of International Rules, a hybrid between AFL and Gaelic Football. Having arrived too late for the explanation of the rules from Tommy ‘Turncoat’ Griffin, I assumed everything would be the same, just with a different ball. Needless to say, I was gravely mistaken, and a ball that bounced predictably turned out to be far more challenging than it sounded.
From the first bounce, it was clear that the Irish familiarity with the Gaelic ball was matched only by their determination to win. With territory and possession in their favour, the Irish launched wave after wave of attack at our goals. The defence of Ollie B, Mitch H and Ben Y battled on against their Irish opposites, who were all seemingly called Conor. The slight consolation was that their front line were still finding the radar, and the score could have been much worse than it was. Regardless, we went into the quarter-time break with a lot to change. Possession was deemed key, too much ball was kicked blindly out of defence and returned with a vengeance. Running the ball was the way forward, ‘tiki-taka’ hand passes encouraged, Dan Tracey led from the front.
The second quarter started better and showed glimpses of what was possible for OUARFC, though I’d be lying if I said the Irish weren’t building a healthy lead. But not at the rate they had been before, as Australian hand-passes were strung together, and possession partly denied from the Irish. However, old habits die hard, and OUARFC were still found guilty of putting the ball on the hoof and hoping for the best. One particular highlight was made by Louis ‘Two Votes’ Jamart, who dropped from half forward back into midfield, running hard and breaking tackles. There he was joined by Brad and Ben Scholl, making his debut with some great touches in midfield and the towering ‘Inspector’ Valmadre, showing his usefulness around the park in a game which was short on his usual diet of ruck taps. The girls held their own against their Irish counterparts, Gen, Emma M and Alexis all played admirably, Alexis in particular made some great tackles (including on Gen in the warm up!).
By the third quarter we were starting to get the hang of it slightly more. ‘Pidge’ Hunn took over the refereeing, allowing Tommy ‘Turncoat’ Griffin time to run in the forward line. Wrong forward line though. Tireless running from Josh, Ewen and Dylan, summer signings for OUARFC, helped counter Irish numbers around the ball. Toby played his strongest match so far for OUARFC, winning taps and tackling hard. The play even found itself in the Irish half, and the ignominy of getting ‘nilled’ was finally avoided with a wildly celebrated point. Wild applause echoed around the ground, none louder than from Jess ’No 1 fan’ Testro, who was sadly unable to play after a disastrous catching incident earlier in the season. This was followed by an absolute belter from Ell who smashed it past the keeper for the full 6 points. Mark, brought along by Mitch and on a quest to play niche sports at Oxford, also grabbed a point. The comeback was on.
By the fourth quarter, OUARFC started to hit their stride. Horspath was once again home to great footy as we applied the hard-learned lessons of the first three quarters. We even persevered with the round ball, despite calls to bring out a Sherrin. The larger ground at Horspath became an increasingly important factor as the entire team pushed hard and the lungs burned. By the final whistle, we were all pretty knackered, but had enjoyed ourselves greatly, despite the one sided scoreboard.
All in all there was a lot to take away from the match. It was played in great spirits, and helped to cement closer ties between the two clubs. The counter-attacking speed of the game is also something we can bring back to our AFL. And at least the All Blacks won that night, so the score that should really be remembered is Ireland 1-1 Antipodes. In all seriousness, if anyone remembers the actual score, please let me know!
