Gaelic football enters our consciousness twice a year. Once, when it gets thrown into the Irish Stew on St Patrick’s day along with hurling (both versions!) and James Joyce, when it seems everyone wants to be Irish, and familiarity with the vernacular, if not the substance, of all things from the Emerald Isle seems as compulsory as green beer. And again at the end of an AFL season, when we take on the best exponents Eyre has to offer – not at their own game, but a fusion called International Rules. And we don’t pit our best Gaelic footballers against them, either. It’s our AFL players, keen for some international competition, who get the guernseys.

So, just when you’d think the grand Gaelic game in Australia might receive its best publicity, instead local players are obscured deeply in the shadows of two national teams playing a Johnny-come-lately hybrid. Interest peaks, but it has little impact on participation in local competitions.

Gaelic football has been in Australia a long time. Intra-Irish rivalries were played out on an interstate basis as far back as the 1920s, when Sydney’s Irish played Melbourne’s. Today, Irish history and politics are encoded in the names of the teams: Sinn Fein, Gaels, Garryowen, Padraig Pearce.

The Aussie game is still run by people with strong Irish accents. “The connection’s very much alive”, says Kyle Reeves, dual All-Australian, three-time Premiership player and winner of the North-Eastern GFA medal.

An annual Australasian Cup features all the states, plus Auckland and Wellington. They also have a World Cup, in which even Fiji enters a team. In the women’s equivalent, 10 nations played last year.

Reeves plays in Adelaide, where the sport has caught on quickly due to the wise decision to make it a summer, night game. Kids from other football codes now play.

“We haven’t really got Irish players. I suppose teams like NSW can play during winter because that Irish population’s strong. But one of our assets against NSW or Victoria is hardness, because we play footy and they don’t.”  That, and the fact that purist practitioners don’t like manning up. “They won’t chase you. You can just run riot. In South Australia, they’d put someone on you pretty quick – a lot like footy”. But there are aspects to the game that Australian sensibilities will have to get used to. “The game never stops, but you wait for people to come at you. In Aussie Rules, if you stand still you’re in trouble. In Gaelic, there’s less people and you have more time for decision making, but different skills come into it.”

Adelaide has a 10-team competition for the men, 8 for the women, and another competition played with modified rules.

Kyle and his mates started playing Gaelic Football “for a bit of extra fitness for footy. Now I like it better.” Reeves is a centre-forward for the Eastern Gaels. He’s the man who takes free kicks and penalties “out of the hands” within scoring range. “We get a soccer player to take the kicks along the ground.”

You’d think the AFL would scour Gaelic Football’s ranks for talent or advice, but they don’t. That’s a shame, according to Kyle. “I reckon we could teach them a thing or two, especially about set shots and kicking goals”.

Kyle badly wants to play Ireland. “I’ve made two Australasian teams and I haven’t gone over there. We’d be playing pretty much against those guys who come over for the International Rules. I’m hanging out because I can test myself against them.” In fact, if he had a choice, he’d play Gaelic football ahead of Aussie Rules. “If they rang me up and wanted me to play over there, I’ll consider it”.

Gaelic football has a reputation here for being a “keepings off” game, but our home-grown edition is much more physical. “You’d be surprised mate. We can’t tackle, but if you came along to the Australasian championships, it’d be just as rough as an AFL game. Hard bumps, hips and shoulders – you play for sheep stations, that’s for sure.”

A bit of good old Aussie thump and bump might take this grand old sport to places it’s never been.

Published in Inside Sport, April 2004