Australian Rules Football in Europe - Ireland

Ireland

Main article: Australian Rules Football League of Ireland See also: Irish experiment

Australian rules football is a fairly recently-introduced team sport in Ireland but the country has a long history of interaction with Australian rules leagues. There has been some awareness of Australian rules football in Ireland since the first International rules football tests took place in late 1967.

Since 1982, the Irish experiment has seen Irish players becoming professional Australian rules footballers in the Australian Football League. High profile players include Jim Stynes and Tadhg Kennelly among others. As GAA sports are primarily amateur competition and the AFL competition is professional, there is a strong financial lure.

Despite Irish players being recruited to the AFL, Aussie Rules was not officially played in Ireland until clubs were formed in Dublin and Belfast in 1999.

The Australian Rules Football League of Ireland was formed in October 2000.

The Irish national Australian rules football team, first appeared at the Atlantic Alliance Cup in 2001, going through the tournament undefeated. Their berth in the Grand Final created a small amount of interest in the Irish media. They then went on to win the 2002 Australian Football International Cup, and have since remained in the top four, despite not having kept the pace with other emerging nations.

The International Rules Series between the AFL and GAA generated a high amount of media interest in Ireland, although this is more due to the similarity between International rules football and Gaelic football than anything related to Aussie Rules. In terms of Australian rules football, the media has covered with interest the successful recruits of the Australian Football League. Television coverage of the sport has grown in Ireland and highlights and game packages are now regularly shown on the ESPN channel through British Sky Broadcasting and cable television operator UPC Ireland.