Irish Girls take on Aussies in Compromise Rules

While the men’s tournament for 2009 has been put on the back burner, in Sydney the competition between the local GAA and Women's AFL will still go ahead, as two local teams with just as much fight look to take home the Irish Australian’s Memorial Cup.

The NSW GAA team took out the Inaugural game last year and have been training hard to play another dominating match this time around. The team is coached by Kieran Olwell from County Meath, who has picked a strong panel of the best Gaelic Football players in Sydney. Kieran hopes to emulate his Idol Sean Boylan, another Meath native, who coached the Irish team that travelled out last October and beat Australia at the MCG.

Many of the Irish girls now have some tackling experience after being a part of the newly formed Bondi Shamrocks AFL club and plan to make use of their new skills against the more physical side from the Sydney Women’s AFL competition (SWAFL). Captain Keira Kinehan (Kilkenny) is looking forward to leading the Irish side and is keen to raise the cup. However after playing last year she knows that the Aussies will be no walk over.

Vice Captain Cara Connaire (Longford), captained the Bondi Shamrocks team, and has experienced the tackling, bumping, and marking aspects of the game first hand. “I know the SWAFL girls will be tough, and it will be challenging to come up against a few of our Australian Shamrock team-mates, and the score won’t be a blow-out like the 49-14 score of last year."

Continuing with the international theme, two ex-pat English girls will join the Australians in the SWAFL squad. The side is coached by Gary Slowgrove who coaches the St George Women’s AFL team. Having coached the representative SWAFL team that played against USA Freedom on their recent tour Down Under, Gary has good experience in getting the best out of some of the players. Captain Cynthia Dufaut, originally from South Australia, has some Gaelic Football experience and believes that the combination of the rules and players who have had the opportunity to play both codes will make for a truly exciting match.

While the jerseys clashed last year with both teams wearing their respective NSW strips, this year we will be in no doubt as to who the Irish team are as they take to the field in the Irish International shirts, while the Sydney team will be wearing the NSW State team Guernseys.

The ladies game kicks off at 1pm at Mahoney Park, Marrickville and will be followed by the men’s game at 3pm. The Sydney Men’s AFL side will be keen to win by more than the 1 point margin they gained last year against the NSW GAA team.