\n Opinion\n <\/p>\n
\n Despite being played in Australia, don’t be surprised if North Sydney Oval sounds more like Croke Park on Saturday\n <\/p>\n
Ireland captain Orla O’Dwyer on Sydney Harbour ahead of the AFLW Origin match to be played at North Sydney Oval on August 1, 2026. Picture: Phil Hillyard<\/p>\n
“THE IRISH ARE COMING!”<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve never heard thousands of Irish people singing \u2018Fields of Athenry\u2019, get ready!<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Ireland and Australia will meet in the historic first AFLW representative match at North Sydney Oval, and with plenty of Irish people living in Australia, don\u2019t be surprised if it sounds more like Croke Park than Sydney.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Irish don\u2019t do things by halves: If Ireland are playing somewhere, we\u2019ll be there to support our country, no matter the sport.<\/p>\n
When I first came to Australia in 2019, there were only a handful of Irish players here. Cora Staunton was the first female Irish athlete to make the move, creating a pathway for the rest of us. Now in 2026, there are more than 40 Irish players across the competition, with more girls back home asking questions and dreaming of the opportunity to play here.<\/p>\n
People often ask me if AFLW is popular in Ireland and the answer is absolutely!<\/p>\n
Every year I\u2019m always surprised by the amount of people asking about it when I return home. What I find even more interesting is that it\u2019s not just me or Brisbane – they know all the Irish players and the clubs they play for. I always spot random AFL jerseys around Ireland now, too.<\/p>\n
Australia has given Irish athletes something we never had playing GAA – the dream to play sport professionally. Gaelic football is completely amateur, so players balance full-time jobs while playing with their counties. Because of the similarities between AFLW and Gaelic football, Irish players are able to adapt to AFLW quickly, with many Irish players winning best and fairest awards at their clubs and being selected in All-Australian teams.<\/p>\n
Courtney Hodder, Kate Hore, Georgie Prespakis, Aishling Moloney, Sarah Rowe, Orla O’Dwyer and Erika O’Shea pose for a photo during the Australia v Ireland portrait session on June 11, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
During the AFLW season, our national TV channel TG4 broadcasts two games every weekend. There\u2019s also a weekly round-up of all the AFLW that is done in Irish, which I always find funny to hear! It\u2019s another example of how invested people back home have become in the competition and the Irish players themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sport has always been something that brings Irish people together. I remember in 2023 when Australia hosted the Women\u2019s FIFA World Cup, thousands of Irish fans in Australia gathered to cheer the Irish team on. I expect the same atmosphere at this game. With such a huge Irish community living in Australia, especially Sydney, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if there were more green jerseys than gold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Being in Australia the past six years has made me appreciate Ireland even more. I love talking about home, but putting on an Irish jersey is different. It brings me back to where it all started – my family, my local GAA club, my county and everyone who has been a part of my journey.<\/p>\n
Courtney Hodder (left) and Orla O’Dwyer pose for a photo during a media opportunity on June 11, 2026. Picture: AFL Photo<\/p>\n
This match feels very patriotic, not just because it\u2019s Ireland v Australia but because it represents the Irish community in Australia. Travelling here after university or taking a career break to experience the \u2018Aussie lifestyle\u2019 has been very common for generations of Irish people. Funnily enough, I was born in Sydney after my parents moved here in their late twenties for four years. They didn\u2019t return to Australia until 2022 to watch me play with Brisbane, which felt like a full circle moment.<\/p>\n
The thing I\u2019m looking forward to most is coming together with the Irish girls. It feels more like a reunion than a group of strangers. The GAA in Ireland is surprisingly small, so even if you haven\u2019t met someone chances are you know who they are, what county they play for and have mutual friends. There\u2019s already an understanding of how each of us plays and a huge sense of pride of representing our country together. Running out with my fellow Tipperary teammates Aishling Moloney, Aish McCarthy and Niamh Martin makes it even more special.<\/p>\n
I can already picture Irish flags waving, \u2018Fields of Athenry\u2019 being sung and plenty of Guinness being drunk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I feel incredibly proud and grateful to get to represent Ireland, and I know every one of the girls feel the same. We\u2019re making history, but more importantly we’re celebrating how far women’s sport has come. From young girls in Ireland watching AFLW on TG4, to Irish supporters filling North Sydney Oval, to a team of women who left home to chase an opportunity on the other side of the world, this match represents so much more than football.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s a celebration of women in sport, the Ireland-Australia connection and the journey that brought us here. I can’t wait to be part of this historic day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opinion Despite being played in Australia, don’t be surprised if North Sydney Oval sounds more like Croke Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-832111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}