Joe Kernan will go back to the basics to prepare Ireland for this year's International Rules series.

One of the most disappointing aspects of last year's defeat to the Australians was the poor quality of kicking by the Irish players in comparison to their hosts.

It's something that the Armagh All-Ireland winning boss intends to address: "If someone told me that an Australian could kick a Gaelic ball, a round ball, better than us I wouldn't believe them," he told The Irish Independent.

"I don't know what way some of the boys are training now - but you have got to kick the ball every night you go training, it's as important as running.

"If we get in to a head-to-head where we are trying to out-catch these boys, we are in trouble.

"We have to play to our strengths. Our strengths should be kicking the ball and our handling, then our tackling and playing the game with intensity and playing the game with speed.

"Maybe over these last few years, we're not kicking the ball as long as we could.

"I can only say what I did in management myself. We did kick the ball and that's what we'll try and get back to. We have time to do that. It's only a matter of refreshing it.

"It is like riding a bike. You don't forget but sometimes you have to get up and practise it enough.

"Maybe teams aren't practising it enough here at the minute but that is one thing we are going to be working on big time.

"We are going to play the game to suit us, not to suit them. We will look at all their strengths but we will certainly work on our strengths and we hope one of our strengths is going to be kicking the ball long."

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