Seán Moran/On Gaelic Games: So farewell then International Rules. Lack of discipline and competitiveness would be the most accurate verdict but doubtless the Irish coroner will simply blame the Australians - which is symmetrical because Down Under the blame will be placed at Ireland's door.

Behind all the recrimination and counter-recrimination lies the ironic significance of the weekend and its aftermath: that a concept founded on what the indigenous games of two countries had in common has now degenerated because of mutual distrust and incomprehension.

Anyone who doubts this should glance at the relevant internet chat rooms in either country. A hemisphere doesn't even begin to encompass the distance between the respective interpretations of what happened in the now infamous first quarter. Even during the good years the GAA and AFL strained against the burden of that lack of understanding.

At a practice match in Perth three years ago Tipperary's Declan Browne sustained a bad injury that ruled him out of the series. He had been flattened off the ball by a local league player with a name straight out of Margaret Mitchell. Ashley Prescott happily met the media afterwards and apologised for the injury, admitting he hadn't really had sufficient time to prepare for the game and that his Aussie Rules instincts had taken over. His demeanour didn't quite tally with someone who had been tipped off about Browne's likely importance and instructed to put him in dry dock. But nothing would convince the visiting management that their player hadn't been deliberately taken out.

Told by an Australian journalist that Prescott's challenge would have been legal in the AFL, Ireland manager John O'Keeffe - normally the soul of diplomatic caution - said with vexed incredulity: "You're joking me." As it happened the tactic of "bumping" a player off the ball to protect a colleague in possession was allowed but only within five metres whereas Prescott hadn't been within the prescribed distance.

But the ambiguity was there. To Irish eyes it had been an outrageous foul; to the locals it was unexceptional.

This ambiguity runs through the international contests. Fouls considered mundane on one side of the world cause a riot on the other and crucially there is a fading inclination to consider the opposing perspective. Australians tend to justify fouls on the basis they would be acceptable in their own game whereas the Irish persevere with behaviour that although not allowed in the GAA code, has become so commonplace that players are used to it.

Sliding or jumping into opponents knees-first might provoke a more resigned response during a Gaelic football match but that doesn't make it any more acceptable. It was such a foul by Aidan O'Mahony that triggered the early free-for-all during which Australia scored their first goal. RTÉ's commentary acknowledged as much. O'Mahony was yellow-carded.

Shane Ryan's lunging boot that forced off Campbell Brown was an example, mentioned here before, of the Irish habit of kicking out at loose ball, a dangerous enough practice but one that an Irish footballer is instinctively prepared for, whereas Australians dive on the ball. Ryan had no chance of getting the ball and instead recklessly ploughed into his opponent with the boot. No action was taken.

The alleged head butt on Ryan O'Keefe was not captured on camera but was obviously seen by former Ireland manager and television analyst Colm O'Rourke, who denounced it in the studio. On screen O'Keefe can be seen standing beside his marker Seán Martin Lockhart and a match official and pointing at his bleeding nose.

Graham Geraghty's injury was an unfortunate accident but one that has been manipulatively used to conjure up the spectre of Irish players' being unsafe or the fulfilment of the menaces levelled at the Meathman the previous week. Anyone who views the tackle has to accept it was within the rules. The aftermath in which Danyle Pearce continues to hold Geraghty and propel him to the ground even though the ball has gone is perhaps punishable but there is the distinct possibility the Australian hadn't seen the ball release so even the intent to "sling" the opponent is questionable.

It was the sort of challenge that has happened hundreds of times in the past eight years of the revived international series and as stated by former Ireland team doctor, Con Murphy, in his four years of involvement there had been no serious injuries sustained in Test matches.

Nonetheless it was an awful sight to see a player being braced up and gingerly manoeuvred on to the stretcher cart, not knowing whether he was critically hurt and it raised the temperature even higher.

By the end of the quarter Benny Coulter had been stiffed by Adam Selwood's shoulder, contrary to rule, and the Australian was correctly yellow-carded. Coulter has said since he doesn't want to play the game again whereas Geraghty continues to be keen. Anecdotal evidence is the players in general are considerably more positive than negative about the series continuing.

The above survey of the main incidents of Sunday's first quarter doesn't include the brawls and rumbles that never made it as far as the camera. It doesn't take into account the threats uttered against Geraghty in the lead-up to the second Test - which were outrageous even outside of a context where the series was under such pressure in respect of disciplinary issues - and the more general posturing that accompanied it.

Nor does it detail all the incidents in which Australian players hold down their opponents in the tackle and grind their heads or grip them by the neck, the thumping and intimidation. But what it does do is debunk the notion Australia are 100 per cent or even substantially to blame for what happened in the opening quarter on Sunday.

There has always been a body of opinion relentlessly opposed - frequently for no more empirical reasons than they just don't like it - to the international project and it has been nourished by the indiscipline of recent series. This may be a good time to call a halt. There seems no commitment to accept or enforce rules - sound familiar? - and in terms of the game Ireland have fallen so far behind the Australians we don't look like being even remotely competitive over two Tests.

But if the plug is going to be pulled, let's not cod ourselves about why the patient ended up on life support.