AFLW player<\/a> she never expected to have the chance to represent her country, adding that the idea used to come up among players collecting their All-Australian blazers, the league\u2019s team of the year.<\/p>\n\u201cThere were always chats about how cool it would be if we actually got to go and play for Australia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we had no one to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irish pathway<\/p>\n
More than 40 Irish players are on AFLW lists, making Ireland the competition\u2019s largest talent source outside Australia.<\/p>\n
Part of the draw is that the AFLW is a professional league, while Gaelic football, the sport nearly every player in the Irish squad grew up playing, is entirely amateur, meaning players aren\u2019t paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery athlete has to balance full-time work and training,\u201d O\u2019Dwyer said of the sport she played at home.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Dwyer said the honour carried similar weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a huge opportunity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
You have read 0 articles this year.<\/p>\n
Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.<\/p>\n
Contribute<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ll look back on more as we progress, and in a few years I\u2019ll think of how big a deal it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Dwyer said there were enough similarities between Irish sports like Gaelic football and camogie to make the switch to Australian football work.<\/p>\n
She came over in 2020 with about nine other Irish players, recruited through Crosscoders, a program that scouted netball, basketball and Gaelic football players.<\/p>\n
Irish players are not just making up numbers.<\/p>\n
Five were named in last season\u2018s All-Australian team, three won their respective club\u2019s best and fairest awards, and three played in last year\u2019s premiership-winning North Melbourne Kangaroos side.<\/p>\n
What to expect<\/p>\n
Saturday afternoon\u2019s match will be played under AFLW rules with a Sherrin, not the hybrid international rules used in past men\u2019s series.<\/p>\n
Garner called the Irish style \u201ca bit unpredictable,\u201d against an Australian game she described as \u201cso structured at times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both expect a chaotic opening, but disagree on how the rest of the game will play out.<\/p>\n
Garner predicted Australia would win by six goals while O\u2019Dwyer said the Irish would \u201ckick into our fifth gear\u201d and win by three goals.<\/p>\n
How to watch<\/p>\n
The match is sold out, with more than 8,000 fans expected at North Sydney Oval.<\/p>\n
It starts at 4.15pm AEST on Saturday, 1 August, and will be broadcast on Fox Footy and Kayo Sports (free).<\/p>\n
The AFL has also partnered with several Sydney venues to host watch parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jasmine Garner and Orla O\u2019Dwyer will captain Australia and Ireland in AFLW\u2019s first-ever meeting between the two nations.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-835348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835348","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=835348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}