Football

AFLW reveal they are “working on” staging the first international rules match between Australia and Ireland next year

The plan is being proposed to boost popularity of women’s football following a recent decline in match attendances and television viewing figures.

Former Armagh player Amy Mulholland feels she is better prepared for a new season with Fermantle Dockers after last year's 'whirlwind season' Picture: Fremantle Dockers media
Former Armagh player Amy Mulholland (currently playing for Fremantle Dockers in the AFL) may be one of the Irish athletes to participate in a history making international rules clash. Picture: Fremantle Dockers media
By Ahmer Khokhar

New AFLW general manager Emma Moore has detailed the possibility of the league staging the first women’s international rules match between Australia and Ireland next year.

Moore has today revealed that AFL top brass is seeking to boost the popularity of women’s football following a recent decline in match attendances and television viewing figures.

Last year it was revealed that television ratings fell 70 per cent since AFLW’s inception in 2017 and crowds were down 60 per cent.

A history making international rules clash is one of the possibilities for which the league is planning alongside a State of Origin game during a potential Gather Round next year.

The AFL introduced Gather Round into the men’s fixture in 2023 and have signed a deal with South Australia to keep the hugely popular format in which all eight AFL matches are staged in the state until 2026.

“I think there is (room for a State of Origin or International Rules game),” Moore said.

“They’re all the things we’re working on right now. We are having those conversations now.”

Moore’s immediate priority is to establish a concrete date for AFLW seasons from next year. The current schedule runs from August to November with last year’s Grand Final in early December. 

Aussie Rules
Armagh's Blaithin Mackin of the Melbourne Demons is another potential Irish athlete set to participate in a history making international rules clash. (Dylan Burns/AFL Photos/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Irish AFLW players have taken advantage of the opportunity to play in the GAA without any restrictions on their availability during AFLW off-seasons but a potential change of date could result in the two codes clashing on the calendar.

“I want us to know when something is going to happen, I want players to have that certainty, I want clubs to have that certainty and I want the media to have that certainty so we can all plan together,” Moore explained.

“Where the calendar ends up will be then a fixed point and that’s what we’ll stick to. I want to do that in the first five months of being here.”

Meanwhile Leitrim’s Elish O’Dowd has attempted to master Aussie slang but the bemused look on her face tells the story of her epic failure. The Ballinamore native who won an All-Ireland with Dublin last year is no closer to understanding some unique Aussie expressions.

O’Dowd hilariously thought that a ‘sanger’ which is short for sandwich means ‘a singer’ and the words ‘Fair Dinkum’ resulted in her using an expletive as she wondered what on earth, she had let herself in for.