Ireland face big challenge in Perth as Australia field strong team

On Saturday morning Ireland's International Rules team take on Australia in the only test of this year's event. AFL media relations manager Patrick Keane told Friday's press conference in the Perth suburb of Burswood that Patersons Stadium in Subiaco had nearly sold out – just more than 40,000 – so the attention of the Australian public has been engaged.

All that’s needed now is a decent match.

Indications are that Australia have a big chance of winning a first home series since 2005 because of an exceptionally strong selection and that Ireland will face their biggest challenge since losing the 2010 series in Limerick and Dublin.

Hype in the build-up

The teams aren't expected to be finalised until shortly before the match, but Australian coach Alastair Clarkson has confirmed  that top Fremantle player Nat Fyfe would definitely not be playing after sustaining a shoulder injury in his team's practice match this week.

After last year's bloodless coup in Ireland – won by the home side by a three-digit margin over the two matches – captain Michael Murphy acknowledged that victory in today's test would in all likelihood mean more to the players than last year's thrashing of the team sent by the AFL.

“Yeah, probably. If we look at it on the whole, any series that we win, for us as an Ireland team we always really, really celebrate it and we find them a great, great sense of achievement but I suppose this year with the one-off test, the one-off game, there’s a huge amount riding on it for both sets of teams,” he said.

“With the build-up to it now, there has been more hype surrounding the game too and players feed off that too. Yeah, possibly it could mean more but we’ll see tomorrow.”

Murphy was also asked about the perennial worry of the series’ bugbears: indiscipline and violence.

There have been few problems in this respect in recent years. Indeed, not since 2006 have the internationals seen a major outbreak of violence and both Clarkson and Ireland manager Paul Earley were adamant on that.

“All we can say from our own perspective is that as an Irish team,” said Murphy, “it hasn’t been mentioned at all.

“We’ve enough to contend with in trying to get used to the new rules that are out there at the moment and get out of our old ways of playing Gaelic throughout our own season. We’ve enough to keep going without trying to contend with anything else.

“There’s going to be nothing on our part and I’m sure it’s going to be the same with the Australian team.”

Two-test series

Meanwhile, Clarkson has expressed the hope that the International Rules series would revert to a two-test series.

“It makes it worthwhile, doesn’t it? It’s only a one-test series and we want it to be more than that and so we want to reinvigorate the series so we get an opportunity to travel abroad next year, ” Clarkson said at the pre-match media conference.

The Australian attitude to the series has always been key to its fortunes, and Clarkson’s comments will build hopes that the internationals may continue.

The GAA and AFL will sit down to try to reach an agreement for the future of the series on Sunday morning.