Like Ireland, Australia's choice of coach for the International Rules series was a famous former player with no coaching experience and extensive media commitments. Yet as is frequently the case in comparisons between the countries, the Aussie version is on an even bigger scale.
At 34, Dermott Brereton is very wealthy (even wealthier than Colm O'Rourke) from his media work as a presenter and summariser with Channel 9 for whom he also made a popular documentary on Ireland last year. Regarded as the ultimate big-game player, he won five Premierships with Hawthorn.
Today he sends out Australia for the second Test and hopes to avoid becoming the first coach from either country to get whitewashed in a series. "That'd be a good coaching record - zip and two," he commented breezily at Wednesday's press conference.
In other respects, however, he has been a great success. Bright and articulate, his acceptance of the coaching position has contributed to the hugely-increased public interest in the series - and consequent attendance records - this time around.
His broadcasting career has caused him to baulk at accepting any coaching jobs in football up until now - with the exception of some specialist work with his club Hawthorn on whose board he sits. This has been despite a clutch of clubs desperate to tempt him into taking charge of their fortunes.
"I always toy with the idea when a coaching job comes up for grabs," says Brereton, "and I get asked along to audition but I've always held back from doing so because of the commitment, the financial aspect.
"With this, it's a perfect scenario for me. It lets me give wholeheartedly in a coaching arena and the timeframe doesn't affect my family and doesn't affect my earning capacity."
Although he is rated as "one of the top three centre forwards of all time", Brereton never won the Brownlow medal for the "best and fairest" in the AFL - won by Jim Stynes in 1991. "Absolutely not," says one observer. "If you're suspended during a season, you can't win the Brownlow. Dermott Brereton was the third most reported player in history."
His involvement with International Rules goes back to the inaugural series in 1984, when as a 19-year-old he travelled to Ireland, but Brereton's international career never really got going.
"I went over there in '84 and we played a practice match at Croke Park against the Irish blokes before the first Test and I rolled over on my knee and ended up having five operations on it since. I actually hurt it in the grand final and didn't think it was bad, went over, aggravated it and it got worse."
Maybe it's his background as a media commentator but Brereton has - more than all the Australian coaches to date - demonstrated a grasp of the hybrid game's complexities and an ability to see beyond the shape of the ball to acknowledge the contribution of both countries.
"I think we've got the best compromise possible," he says. "When you get down to the mechanics of it, whatever ball is out there the perception is that it is closer to that sport. That's a natural instinct. You have to go to one rule and ask what's the major difference? That's the tackling rule and that's in our favour. The Irish have the ball, we have the tackle.
"You can see now how it's changed. If either side from '84 ran out on the field and they had brilliant players, either side now could beat any one of those two sides because we've seen how the game has evolved and we've worked out the best way to play it.
"I've an Irish background and watch the All-Irelands when they're on and the usage of handball now is a lot more prevalent now than it was 12 years ago. We've also benefited from seeing the Irish - various things like running forward in the play, where to make positions and the natural flow-through of the ball. We've taken a bit off each other."
His Irish roots are strong. The son of two Dubliners who emigrated to Melbourne in 1956 - his mother has returned and now lives in Rathfarnham; his father has passed on - Brereton gets back to Ireland "at least once every two years".
The Irish background helped involve him in controversy in the 1980s when he was alleged to be contributing money to the Provisional IRA. It is a controversy he still resents.
"That was incorrect reporting. I have donated money to various causes, to the Kurds - I still donate handsomely to animal charities around the world - and I donated to a group called Australian Aid for Ireland.
"That was basically a charitable donation which makes its way into the hands of nationalist Irish people who are under-privileged. Somehow that got translated by the press that it was going to the hardcore IRA - which was very disappointing for me. I disliked it intensely."
This week he has stated that he would be happy with a win to square the series, regardless of whether Australia can overhaul Ireland's eight-point lead and win on aggregate.
Whether or not he succeeds will be known soon enough but the aspiration, expressed nine days ago, to a place in the history of International Rules looks to have been already fulfilled.
"If in 10 years and I'm not coaching this - which is highly likely - and I can look back and say we really participated in kickstarting this, and it's an enormous affair by then, I'll be very proud and happy."
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