Thumbs up down under for series

This has been the most significant week for the GAA's overseas relations since the International Rules series against Australia was inaugurated in 1984. It has also come a little out of the blue, given that even the game's most enthusiastic advocates had been sceptical about its ability to fire the sporting imagination down here.

For some administrators, the faith had never wavered as they were convinced that the international outlet was as valuable to the AFL in Australia as it was to the GAA at home. Yet even they were prepared to accept a crowd of between 30,000 and 35,000 in Melbourne for the first Test.

That the turnout doubled such a break-even figure was due to a number of factors. For a start, the AFL did a good job of publicising the match, even if most of the advertising impacted late in the week.

It was a pricey television and radio campaign, the costs of which were shared by the AFL and the GAA and certainly compared favourably with the hand-written posters of nine years ago urging people to come out and see the stars of Australian Rules playing Gaelic football.

Once an awareness of the event had been established, other factors came into play. Last Friday was a beautiful day in Melbourne and the night was clear and balmy. The city is a sporting community and was bound to be curious about the match.

As one emigre, resident in Sydney, pointed out, Melbournians tend to peer into the darkness on a good night and see if the lights are on down at the MCG.

Partly because of the enormous capacities of both the MCG and the old Waverley ground - built in 1972 but soon to be demolished to make way for the new docklands stadium in the city centre - sports followers in the city have been accustomed to turning up on the night without having to pre-book.

This they did in huge numbers, making the disappointing ticket sales of early last week (around 6,000) quite unrepresentative of the final attendance.

This indicates that the initial task of creating an interest has been completed. The success reflected in these figures means that the short-term future of the series is guaranteed. Without engaging the Australian public, no amount of pushing from Ireland was going to keep the idea afloat.

Because the attendance targets have been shattered, the basic concerns have been addressed and no longer is the Irish immigrant community so important to the attendance figures. Accordingly the AFL's decision to take the second Test to Adelaide - a football stronghold rather than Sydney with its big population - looks vindicated.

As encouraging - if not more so - has been the reaction of Australians to the game itself and the concept of international competition between the similar but contrasting codes.

For a long time, the hybrid had been regarded as essentially Gaelic football with a couple of trimmings designed to make the compromise more palatable to the Australians. Behind the broadcast ads and the firework displays, there had to be acceptance of the game itself. In this context, the attitude of the public has been overwhelmingly positive.

This has been led by the Australian team and officials who have acknowledged the Irish concessions rather than dwelling morosely on the difficulties posed by the round ball. This attitude has percolated through to the public who on a public access radio talk-show here in Adelaide yesterday unanimously approved of the game as a spectacle.

The main attraction was still the obvious one of seeing the footie players in an Australian jersey. None of this is to underestimate the difficulties posed by the ball. The Australians struggle to adapt to it and this undermines their competitiveness. Whereas some Irish players would like to have a go at the oval ball, the balance of experienced opinion seems, alas, to suggest that it's not feasible.

LAST year Brian Stynes, who had some experience in the Rules game earlier this decade, stated that he couldn't see Irish players adapting. Then Australia coach Leigh Matthews characteristically put it more bluntly, saying that Irish players "wouldn't touch the ball".

Derry's Anthony Tohill, himself an alumnus of the AFL, is also of that opinion and explained that he took three months of hard practice before he mastered kicking the oval ball.

Not that the Australians make it easy on themselves. By basing team selection on their equivalent of the All Stars, they ensure a big turnover of players each year and have to set about tutoring them in the use of the round ball all over again.

Players with experience of International Rules from last year were not considered if their form was poor - even though one such individual contacted the AFL's chief executive to ask to be considered for one of the replacement slots. By such criteria, Ja Fallon - Ireland's scoring star in the first Test - wouldn't have made the cut.

In this context, the best chance for future series may well be the under-17 level at which the countries have also played over the last two years. One of the areas in which the GAA might learn from the AFL is in the whole area of discipline. The AFL hand down swingeing suspensions without reference to the player involved being one of their own, sick with worry, sorely provoked or whatever. This isn't always the case within the GAA, as was highlighted by the events surrounding the Graham Geraghty racial abuse issue.

Without re-opening the substance of that controversy, it's worth pointing out that before the Management Committee made their move, the broader-based Irish response to the matter seemed to be that if the Australians and the young player in question were happy, the whole thing should be left alone.

This reflects a common attitude at home where frequently something isn't addressed unless it has to be (and even then, not always). The action taken by management was a recognition that if an action doesn't meet the GAA's objective standards, it should be dealt with, regardless of what other people - Damien Cupido (the youngster abused), his parents, the AFL - think.

You wouldn't get far by pleading that a player whose leg you'd broken had accepted your apology (assuming you weren't a valuable intercounty player in which case you mightn't have been charged at all).

Too often issues are swept under the carpet because no one objects. Inasmuch as that didn't happen last week, the GAA should be glad and make sure that this overall lesson is packed with the rest of their luggage for the journey home.