After a seven-year hiatus, the international rules series could be set for a major revamp with Australian rules bosses pushing for the hybrid game’s comeback.
Respected AFL journalist, Glenn McFarlane, a former sports editor of Melbourne’s biggest selling Sunday newspaper The Sunday Herald Sun, believes the landscape is clearing for International Rules.
“The AFL is open to reviving the International Rules Series,” McFarlane told Australian pay television channel Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle. “It’s been in a hiatus since Covid.
“We haven’t had a Series since 2017. There (have) been a few issues with the GAA, there’s not been a lot of discussion and conversation.”
AFL legend Garry Lyon, who coached the Australian side between 2001-04, winning in ‘02 and ‘03 and is now one of the AFL’s biggest name pundits, has thrown his weight behind the hybrid code’s return.
Lyon was a former teammate of the late Jimmy Stynes and has always espoused the skills of Irish AFL players.
“I’ve spoken to the great Garry Lyon, who was the famous Australian coach,” McFarlane said.
“He was saying ‘Boys, how would you love to see Zak Butters play with Nick Daicos, playing with Harley Reid, playing with Marcus Bontempelli — that would be awesome’.
“Now, it’s still a fair way off, but the AFL is definitely open to speaking to the GAA and potentially setting that up for some time down the track.”
McFarlane also suggested that an inaugural women’s international rules series could be in the pipeline. Last year more than three dozen Irish women featured in AFLW.
He said: “It might be a men’s (and) women’s scenario as well, there might be a women’s team that goes there as well.”
According to McFarlane, one possible scenario to secure the hybrid game’s future is for the series to be played every four years.
“It’d be a situation (where) it might be like an Olympic year you do every four years,” he said.
“Let’s see if we can get on that trip.”
The on-field violence which marred the 2005 international rules in Australia led many in Ireland to believe the series should be permanently cancelled. Australia’s then coach Kevin Sheedy never blamed his players, insisting that Ireland were the instigators.
The current head-to-head Series ledger is squared at 10 series wins apiece. Ireland has won 21 individual Tests to Australia’s 19, with only two drawn Tests (1999 and 2002) in the Series’ history.
