Although dates and locations have yet to be finalised for next year's return leg of the promising International Rules Series, Australian coach Leigh Matthews stressed that AFL venues are not best suited to the compromise sport. He believes that supporters need to be closer to the field in order to become involved.
"It has to be staged on a rectangular field and not a rectangular field in the middle of a football oval. It's lost when that happens, so we need to find a venue where the crowd are not back from the sidelines of the field," he said.
While the visiting party departed Dublin yesterday morning content that their part in the revival had been both enjoyable and rewarding, there remains a degree of trepidation about how the Australian public will receive the return series next year. And while there is an underlying feeling here that the Irish won a sport which combines both codes, the Australians themselves still feel as though they are competing in a hastily camouflaged version of Gaelic football.
"It's an interesting question, I just don't know. It's a different game and I think that honestly, Australians prefer the one played with the oval ball," he said when asked about the reaction in Australia to the Croke Park series.
"In all honesty, it was played at 12 o'clock at night over there, so a lot of people didn't even know it was on," Matthews continued.
That the fixtures were set for October also added to Australian disinterest as the month is traditionally perceived as being a rest month for AFL players.
"Many of the players were lukewarm about continuing on in October. It's the rest month - many teams begin pre-season training in November. Until it is ingrained in players that they are representing their country, it will, I think, remain an afterthought to players in both codes."
Matthews said that his players were dismayed but hardly distraught at losing the series.
"You go back and get on with life when you go home. We would have liked to have won but I don't think it's so deeply ingrained in the psyche of the country that we are going to have sleepless nights for the next three months. But we had a fantastic feeling when we won the first game and this was the other side of the coin." Meanwhile, Irish captain John McDermott commented that the physical commitment of the home players saw them through on Sunday. "One thing that we made a commitment to each other - and we did - was that we'd stand up to them physically. And you had some fellas there who put their heads in where others wouldn't put their foot."
McDermott feels that both games did much to enchance the sport as a genuine entity and that the sport sold itself to spectators.
"It has a great future. I certainly hope I'm in for the away leg anyway. If the two games had been a disaster I think that would have been the death knell for the series but they were extremely entertaining."
He felt that some aspects of the sport could benefit the domestic game. "I think picking the ball off the ground without the use of the foot and having the goalkeeper take kick-outs from the hand is a help. The pace of this game is fantastic. Also, we need a better defined tackle in Gaelic, which this game already has."
Galway player Sean de Paor, who showed a natural aptitude for the international game despite joining the panel little over a fortnight ago, felt that the Irish had played a lot smarter second time around.
"Last week in the fourth quarter, we kicked the ball away a lot but in the second game, we slowed it down a bit and kept possession, played with a bit of intelligence. It was a fantastic experience and we were all delighted to have won."
Tipperary will be without Declan Ryan and Thomas Dunne for their Oireachtas hurling tie with Waterford on Saturday. They are ruled out because of their involvement with their clubs, Clonoulty-Rossmore and Toomevara respectively, who meet in the Tipperary senior hurling final a week later.
