AFL.com.au's Gemma Bastiani spent three days with the Irish team as it prepared to take on the Aussies in last Saturday's representative footy clash. This is what she saw.
IN THE shadow of an historic All-Ireland Championship win for Mayo, a team of Irishwomen converged to represent their country on the other side of the world.
Despite the physical distance, the two events were intrinsically linked.
Head of selectors Cora Staunton arrived in Sydney with a buzzing head and plenty of jetlag, having stayed in Ireland to see her county snag the win. Sarah Rowe watched from afar with her father, Alan, feeling especially close given her grandfather played in Mayo's last All-Ireland championship back in 1951.
It was the talk of the camp, and a motivating factor behind the Ireland team's charge toward the nation v nation clash.
"It touched so many people deeply, and that's why a lot of the Mayo girls who are here this week are now like, 'God, I've never been so homesick in my life'," Rowe told AFL.com.au.
But the timing couldn't have been better. That homesickness was cured by the group coming together in preparation for the game. Donning the bright orange and emerald green spray jackets, they were immediately relaxed.
"There's just a peace within it all, it's the unspoken words that we understand. It's not having to explain ourselves," Rowe said.
Letting down the guard
Generally, the Irish are seen as a blunt people. Straight to the point. And that doesn't always land well when they arrive in Australia. But amongst their own, they don't have to worry about that extra mental pressure to ensure they're coming across the right way.
"Everyone is the same, so everyone understands you're harsh and you're hard because you care and because you're passionate and you're emotional. You're not harsh because you are trying to be difficult… we probably feel that sometimes we have to be a bit more careful," Rowe said.
"I think Ireland is very much like work hard, put your head down, keep it simple, stop shit talking. Just go after it."
A small group of Irish players sat next to some cricket nets at Ultimo's Wentworth Park on Thursday, two days out from the game. They're preparing for a training session in line with their respective clubs' strength and conditioning plan.
It's a low-key set up compared to their high-performance facilities at their AFLW clubs – a stroll down the street to a public oval to keep the body ticking over. As they laced up their boots and had their GPS units assigned, they joked that it feels just like a Gaelic game back home.
"Referee showing up 10 minutes before the game, no facilities, a couple of one-twos," one of the players laughed.
As they introduced themselves to the assigned staff they had another chuckle: "Two Orlas, different spelling."
There's a sense that they can be a little more vocal in this camp. They might be playing Australia's game, but among their own, there is no imposter syndrome.
The feeling extends to line meetings and other planning sessions, with captain Orla O'Dwyer speaking up more than she typically would back within her Brisbane team, pleased with the reception she received from her fellow Irishwomen.
Her voice carried from the midfield group on Friday, as her Brisbane head coach Craig Starcevich watched on. 'Starce' was the coach assigned to the line, but O'Dwyer, and North Melbourne dynamo Vikki Wall were the true leaders of the meeting.
"It's definitely something that I've noticed as well from being around the group. Even in our lines, you're saying something (and) everyone's like 'Oh, I completely agree'," O'Dwyer said.
"You mightn't say as much in an Australian line meeting because there's already so many other people talking about it. And I know my first few years, I didn't speak as much. When you're thinking 'I'm still new to the game, I'm learning the game, what I say doesn't matter' in a way.
"But no, I think it's a good thing that everyone feels confident to speak like that, and it just kind of adds to it as well. You hear different peoples' opinions, and people are using the same kind of Gaelic football mindset."
History plays a part
For head coach Colin O'Riordan, it was crucial that the largely Australian coaching panel and staff behind the Irish side truly understood what it means to be Irish.
Pulling the group in together on Thursday – coaches, physios, operations staff, doctors – three key points were presented: Spirit and resilience; togetherness and loyalty; and pride.
The Irish are a resilient people. Famine and war are a large part of the country's history, with a mentality to push through embedded in its population. As a small country, they are generally under resourced on a global scale, so they embrace the challenge head-on.
They do that by coming together as a community. The six degrees of separation so commonly cited throughout history is just two in Ireland, according to its people. Everyone knows one another through a cousin, an aunt, a colleague, or a friend.
Examples of this are rife throughout the group that descended on Sydney. O’Riordan’s fiancée Lou used to play Gaelic football with O’Dwyer (“she was really good”). Niamh Martin, Àine McDonagh, and Blaithin Bogue’s parents and uncle met playing Gaelic in New York before the trio arrived in Australia to play in the AFLW. Rowe and Aishling Moloney lived together throughout university.
Which means bringing the squad of 25 together in a short period of time is not so much of a challenge. It's not hard to get the group to connect because they've played together before. Maybe not in Australia, and maybe not for a decade, but there is a comfortable familiarity.
And if they haven't, there is a strong community that has built between the Irish AFLW contingent across Australia, and they already lean on one another for support.
The camaraderie comes easily, and that much is clear as players see Sydney midfielder Tanya Kennedy in the doorway of the team room. Initially picked in the squad – and deemed a crucial part of the side – a back injury forced her to withdraw a week before the historic clash.
There was devastation for Kennedy, but right alongside that was enthusiasm for the next player in. It was someone else's chance to represent their country, and that meant everything.
It all comes back to their pride in their Irishness. To be Irish is not what you are, it is who you are. It's not an overt patriotism, but there is a passion and an understanding bubbling under the surface.
For Collingwood stalwart Rowe, understanding the emotion and feeling of what it means to be Irish was the most important part.
"Because in Ireland we play for no other reason than pride of place, community, family, the depth of that. We always play to win, and we always play for medals, we don't play for money, we don't play for fame, we don't play for anything other than that heart, that spirit, and that's what brings us back all the time because that's what we've grown up with," Rowe said.
"So, when we come over to Australia, we find sometimes we don't have that depth of emotion in a place that we didn't grow up in… so it feels like there's always this missing piece, and it's in your heart. So then when you talk to the emotion of what it means to be in a room with a group of people who have that same depth of emotion with what it means to be Irish and what it means to play for your country and what we've grown up (with) in Gaelic football, what's similar about us is we've all felt that in Ireland."
Many of the players have family in town, some who are already based locally, and others who have made the trek from Ireland.
Rowe's father Alan is one of those, who wouldn't have missed it for the world.
"The minute the game was announced, the date was set, I booked my flights, locked it in. Playing for your country, especially in these circumstances, is such a lovely opportunity. I would never have missed it," Alan said.
Chaos v control
Just because the emotion amongst the Irish group was high and a key part of the camp, it doesn’t mean there were no tactics going into the clash.
On a walk, assistant coaches Elise Coventry and Starcevich discuss strategies and roles. They fight against the perception that Irish midfielders can't compete with the Australians. They just don't get enough of a chance at AFLW level.
The ruck was another in-depth chat: How do they best maximise the impact of their talls against Australia's Mim Strom and Matilda Scholz?
On more than one occasion, 1960s sitcom Get Smart was referenced. The chaos v control of it all. The Irish would be chaos. Australia would be control.
O'Riordan is happy to lean into that assumption, but quick to roll his eyes when others bring it up.
"We'll play the dumb Irish," he said with a laugh.
There is a desire to tap into the instinctual nature of what the Irish style is, but there is still an intelligence to how they move. Their positioning, capacity to run, and be in the right positions comes from years of playing Gaelic football.
Just because it seems chaotic to an Australian eye, doesn't mean it isn't planned.
"It's organised chaos for us… I just know what people are doing," O'Dwyer said.
"Back home you can play a lot more freely, or you're on the go all the time. You're touching the ball loads, and I think it kind of flows more naturally. So, I think all the Irish are excited just to play that free kind of way. And Colin said it as well, he's like 'We can give you a little plan and we can give you tactics, but at the end of the day, this is a game for you to showcase your own weapons', and that's I think what we've all bought into."
The biggest focus when it comes to tactics and structure does come around the midfield, and particularly centre stoppage. On a small ground, against strong contested players, being able to equalise there was always going to be key to getting control in the game.
Over dinner, the coaches calmly move around the room, a quick question to Adelaide's Kayleigh Cronin – "you know what you're doing at CB?" – a brief reminder to the wingers that the ground might be short, but it is still wide enough for them to get to work.
What it means to be an Irishwoman
Brought in tight in the small North Sydney Oval changeroom ahead of Saturday's game, the music was switched off, and focus was on the head coach.
The energy at a high – coaches O’Riordan, Tadgh Kennelly, and runner Rhyce Shaw have just done their own Irish jigs to the claps of the playing group – and it was time to channel that energy into the game. The culmination of weeks of anticipation and talk.
“Talking is f***ing done,” O’Riordan said.
“Absolutely done. Okay, it’s got to mean something to you girls. It’s got to f***ing mean something to you. What are you willing to give? Pick your f***ing friend up, pick your teammate up, pick your countrywoman up. What’s the f***ing definition of Irishwoman? Tough, loyal, strong.”
Everyone drew on the passion from the coach, and after just a minute of his rev up, they ran out to a roaring, Irish-heavy crowd.
A couple of one-twos
The Irish style of running footy, quick handballs, and supporting one another was always going to be a drawcard in the game. And after getting hit in the face with three quick goals to Australia, the Irish way of playing burst onto the scene.
All week the players had talked about employing “a couple one-twos” and that is exactly how they scored.
“It happened a good few times there,” star Geelong forward Moloney said after the match.
“We’re glad that you got to see a bit of a brand of football that we play back home in Ireland. It was very exciting at times. I was buzzing for us when we started doing it because we started getting good looks and goals. But that was our team coming into this: We’re going to bring Gaelic football and play it the way we do at home.”
They might not have totally aligned with Mayo’s winning ways, but ultimately it didn’t matter.
The excitement, passion, and speed the Irish contingent has brought to the AFLW has been crucial to the game’s growth, both locally and internationally.
It’s a couple of one-twos, it’s a remarkable Niamh McLaughlin goal that started with the Gold Coast co-captain in the defensive goalsquare. It’s a huge Vikki Wall bump. And a classy Blaithin Bogue goal.
It’s the capacity to draw 9017 people to North Sydney Oval, and plenty more at venues across the country.
And this is just the beginning.
