The victorious Irish team make the move from Melbourne to Adelaide today to prepare for next Friday's concluding second Test. With the Test series still finely balanced after Ireland's eight-point victory, the big winners were the administrators of both the GAA and the AFL.

Having come to Australia this year knowing that International Rules was dead in the water if the locals failed to register an interest, the GAA were jubilant at the massive turnout - more than double the 30,000 figure which was felt to be the break-even mark for the game's future.

Such a level of interest was primarily to the credit of the AFL whose television and radio campaign raised awareness of the international aspect of the series and gave the sizeable hard-core football public in Melbourne a chance to cheer their country rather than merely their club.

To experienced International Rules watchers (and there aren't that many), the match may have lacked fluency and rhythm but there was no doubting that such epicurean opinions were a little out-of-kilter with the viewing public at large.

It's impossible to be empirical at this early stage but the straws in the wind were encouraging. Amongst those who saw the match on television - taxi drivers, barmen etc - there was a general thumbs-up for the match - with immigrants particularly satisfied to see the at times overbearing Aussie sports ego trimmed a little.

Public-access radio was also enthusiastic with the main complaints coming from those who got caught in traffic on the way to the game and those who found the car park stewarding inadequate at the MCG.

In fact on one station, the row that developed concerning the tackle and the round ball so enveloped the panellists concerned that the presenter drily remarked: "We've obviously got a game here".

Gauging media coverage can be difficult given the extreme parochialism of the outlets. Melbourne's two biggest newspapers, The Age and The Sun-Herald both carried significant coverage on the day of the match and the day afterwards.

The Australian newspaper has the courage of its convictions to demonstrate Sydney parochialism in Melbourne (which tends to be uninterested in The Australian's favourite sport, rugby union) and its condescending attitude to the series drew a waspish aside from Australian coach Dermott Brereton at the post-match press conference on Friday.

Naturally, the paper was less than impressed by the events of the first Test. Reporter Warwick Hadfield stated that the difference between the sides would "despite the MCG crowd of 64,326 and the closeness of the contest, always mark these matches more as a fine curiosity than a genuine sporting contest.

"What the Irish did instinctively with the ball of their choice the Australians - even sometimes (Nathan) Buckley (Australia's captain and best player) - had to think about.

"In a game played at the blistering pace of this hybrid, that is an extraordinary disadvantage."

Martin Flanagan in the The Sunday Age was more intrigued.

Noting that the MCG "stadium glittered like a diamond for the occasion", he went on to say that "all the prerequisites for a memorable occasion were there - a balmy night, a pre-match cocktail of thumping fireworks and Irish music, an appreciative crowd of nearly 65,000, national flags and then, finally, the match itself."

Of the game itself, Flanagan believes it "a better showcase for Irish football than for our code. It is a breathtakingly offensive game - like watching soccer on speed."

Generally the match was portrayed as a triumph for Irish skill over Australian physique and stamina. The hosts' (with the heroically honourable exception of Buckley) inadequacy with the round ball was predictably seen as the main source of their troubles.

Yet this series has differed from previous ones in that there appears a greater Australian willingness to accept that the game is a genuine hybrid rather than a modified form of Gaelic football. Only The Australian reiterated the old view that the compromise was hopelessly undermined by using the round ball.

Most Rules people at this stage accept that the presence of the tackle and the mark makes the game a bit of a struggle for the Irish as well.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of injury concerns for the Irish ahead of Friday's Test. Captain John McDermott aggravated a shoulder injury but is likely to play but both Sean de Paor and especially Ciaran O'Sullivan are feared likely to struggle to make the cut after knocks picked up during the first Test.