International Rules Football
International Rules Football is a mix of Australian Football and Gaelic Football . Both sports are very similar and used to be played almost exclusively in Australia and Ireland . In order to make international matches between these two nations possible, the associations Australian Football League and Gaelic Athletic Association agreed on a new set of rules, which represents a compromise between the Australian and Irish variants. In Ireland, therefore, there is sometimes also talk of compromise rules .
history
International rules football was first played in 1967 when an Australian national team visited Ireland and played several games against a selection from the Gaelic Athletic Association . Since 1998, two games have been played annually between the Australian and Irish national teams. Since 2014 only one game has been played per year, with the host country changing annually. By 2015, Ireland had won 21 games and Australia 17 games. Outside of this country comparison, the International Rules are not widely used.
regulate
In accordance with the compromise character of the rules, the rectangular playing field and the round ball were taken from Gaelic football , the tackling against the upper body and the "branding" of the ball from Australian football . A team consists of 15 players (including the goalkeeper ) and a game lasts 72 minutes. There are three ways to score: A shot in the goal brings six points (goal). If a player kicks the ball between the bars, which represent a vertical extension of the goal posts, his team receives three points (over). A shot that lands next to the goal but inside the outside bars results in a point (behind).
competitor
In contrast to Gaelic football, the number of nations playing Australian football has increased enormously in recent years, so that in 2002 the unofficial international association, the International Australian Football Council and the Australian Football League , played the Australian Football International Cup , a kind of world championship, for the first time in and around Melbourne could be. Five tournaments had already been held by 2014. The Australian national team itself does not take part in the AFIC because the playing level of the other nations is (still) too low. That could change in the future as more and more foreigners play in the AFL, who should become good competition in the AFIC. An Irish national team in Australian football already exists; she won the title in 2002 and 2011.