The Australian international rules footballers arrived in Dublin last night and will get their first taste of action this afternoon. After a press conference in Croke Park this lunchtime, the team will play a practice match against a Dublin selection at 4 p.m. in Parnell Park.

Before departure, the Australians suffered another blow with the news that established forward Matthew Lloyd has had to stay at home for ankle surgery.

Coach Dermott Brereton's panel has suffered a fair degree of chopping and changing since initial selection, with key player Nathan Buckley unable to travel because of a knee injury and his predecessor as captain, Wayne Carey, also out. Jeff Farmer was replaced for non-attendance at the team's training camp in Melbourne at the weekend.

Lloyd's withdrawal leaves the Australian side without a recognised full forward. Two years ago he was one of the best Australian forwards on tour, but did not play in last year's series in Australia.

He had carried his injury throughout the AFL finals series and will have an arthroscope in the next few days. Despite training in the first two days of the team camp, Lloyd was booked in for surgery after seeing a specialist on Monday night.

Tour selectors decided against replacing him immediately, but they did not rule out calling up one or more players from the Adelaide-Melbourne exhibition match in London this weekend.

Campbell's Essendon team-mate James Hird has been named captain for the tour, with the venerable Craig Bradley - a veteran of the inaugural 1984 tour - coming in as vice captain.

"It's a great honour and it's great to be the head of these guys and I'm looking forward to it," Hird told the Melbourne Age.

A prominent influence on his club's Grand Final success, Hird won the Brownlow Medal (for best and fairest) in 1996 and was recently commended by coach Brereton as being similar in style to Nathan Buckley - consistently the best Australian since the series resumed in 1998. He may be forced to fill the full forward role in the absence of Farmer and Lloyd.

"We were all very disappointed, because in the practice games he (Lloyd) has played very well as that figurehead for us and we don't really have anyone else there," Hird said.

"I think we're going to try Trent Croad there or maybe Steven King. Lloyd is a 100-goal kicker and he gives you something to aim at. We'll have to try (people) in a few more positions - but he'll be greatly missed."