INTERNATIONAL RULES/First Test: Some of the talk leading up to this evening's first Test of the Fosters International Rules series should be worrying for Ireland. There has developed a consensus that last year's victory marked a turning point in the game and that Ireland have cracked the international code, writes Seán Moran  in Perth

Such speculation in the past has generally been a prelude to disaster because although the annual series remains resolutely inscrutable until we get a look at the teams in the first Test the one constant is that complacency gets punished.

Each country has one back-to-back sequence since 1998 and in both cases the following year's series went badly wrong, 12 months ago and in 2000.

Much of the fretting about the future of the concept has concerned the likelihood Australia would get the hang of it and with their professional levels of fitness and preparation, win a large preponderance of the series to come.

Only last year the abiding concern was that Ireland weren't coming to terms with the tackle and the mark as well as the Australians were with the round ball.

International Rules abhors domination by one side or the other and the game would have no future if that were to become a long-term trend. But it might be premature to talk about Ireland now in such terms, purely on the basis of a game plan that went well last year. After all, Australia in 2004 gave easily the poorest performance of any side to have played the game.

Although new coach Kevin Sheedy has been emphasising how much faster his team needs to be given the standard set by Ireland last year, it seems to have been forgotten the main reason the visitors to Dublin 12 months ago found catching their opponents so difficult was the impact of a lager-and-late nights regime. But Sheedy is convinced speed is the quality his side need more any other and has selected accordingly, making the injury that rules out Daniel Wells particularly unwelcome.

He has also overhauled the approach to the game, talking about the long term and the need to bring together a consistent panel of players and ensure continuity in future series.

At yesterday's media conference the Australian coach laid out his mission statement: "Players have been picked to move the ball quicker than we did in Ireland last year when we just bombed it away. We hope to put up a tremendous performance so Irish people watching will say, 'now you've really got the game'."

The strange thing about this rush to embrace a fleet-footed approach and leave behind the selection of hulking stereotypes is that viewed over the years, big AFL players have caused Ireland quite an amount of difficulty: Justin Leppitsch, Matthew Pavlich and Barry Hall to name but three.

Of course everything is relative and nearly all of the home side are well over six-feet tall but Sheedy has picked undeniably fast players. His emphasis is expected to be on moving the ball at pace through the middle with players like Dale Morris, Andrew Lovett and this evening's captain, Andrew McLeod, rotating in short bursts to ensure a high tempo throughout the match.

(As an aside, at the conference McLeod retorted sharply to a question about his opponents' amateurism: "We aren't getting paid to play for our country". His counterpart, Pádraic Joyce, said that Irish players would like to be professionals.)

The critical area for the home side will be in attack and how successfully possession can be converted into scores. So far in training, their accuracy has looked well above average.

In the absence of their top guns from recent series, Hall and Nathan Brown, the strike forwards will be Nathan Eagleton, who played in the first Test in 1998, and Sydney's Nick Davis who bailed out his team en route to the Grand Final with four goals in a quarter against Geelong. But Sheedy did emphasise the need to spread the scoring burden.

Ireland manager Peter McGrath announced his match panel yesterday evening. The four to lose out were Ryan McMenamin, Ross Munnelly, Philip Jordan and Dessie Dolan.

The first two were nursing ailments all week. McMenamin's chest infection is largely cleared but his aerobic capacity hasn't fully recovered whereas Munnelly just couldn't shake the dead leg picked up in training. There were raised eyebrows over Dolan's omission because he has a lot of experience with 42 points from seven Test appearances.

"Westmeath's involvement wasn't as extensive this year," said McGrath "and he has had an injury and a lot of rehabilitation during the summer to get fit for the series so we decided to hold him back until next week.

"Philip was one of the Tyrone players who because of their championship success weren't able to make it down for weekend training and he hasn't adapted as quickly as the others."

There is never any certainty about these matches when so little is known about the Australians from year to year. Ireland will be fielding 14 of the team that won the previous Test in Dublin; Australia have none of the players from the same match.

This is a strong as well as an experienced Ireland team. While last year was no adequate challenge there are sufficient proven International Rules players to give the visitors an edge.

From Graham Canty, Anthony Lynch and Seán Martin Lockhart at the back through Ciarán McManus in the middle to Ciarán McDonald (described by Aussie coach Sheedy as a "blond machine"), Benny Coulter and Joyce up front Ireland have a wealth of performers, most of whose credentials predate last year's cake walk.

"We will play our game," said McGrath yesterday. "We know what we're good at and will go out to impose our game and our style. If you go out trying to prevent the opposition from playing their game, you're on the back foot."

Less than a month ago Kerry found that taking on a team at their own game is not an easy task. Australia are about to discover the same.

IRELAND: Pádraic Joyce (Galway) capt, Michael McVeigh (Down), goalkeeper, Eoin Brosnan (Kerry), Graham Canty (Cork), Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone), Ronan Clarke (Armagh), Colm Cooper (Kerry) Benny Coulter (Down), Bryan Cullen (Dublin), Brian Dooher (Tyrone), Matty Forde (Wexford), David Heaney (Mayo), Tom Kelly (Laois), Seán M Lockhart (Derry), Anthony Lynch (Cork), Ciarán McDonald (Mayo), Brian McGuigan (Tyrone), Ciarán McManus (Offaly), Michael Meehan (Galway), Owen Mulligan (Tyrone), Seán Ó hAilpin (Cork), Stephen O'Neill (Tyrone), Tomás Ó Sé (Kerry).

AUSTRALIA (from): Andrew McLeod (Adelaide; captain), Dustin Fletcher (Essendon; goalkeeper), Heath Black (Fremantle), Amon Buchanan (Sydney), Trent Croad (Hawthorn), Aaron Davey (Melbourne), Nick Davis (Sydney), Brett Deledio (Richmond), Nathan Eagleton (Western Bulldogs), Daniel Giansiracusa (Western Bulldogs), Lindsay Gilbee (Western Bulldogs), Shannon Grant (Kangaroos), Brent Harvey (Kangaroos), Luke Hodge (Hawthorn), Chris Johnson (Brisbane Lions), Matthew Lappin (Carlton), Andrew Lovett (Essendon), Troy Makepeace (Kangaroos), Darren Milburn (Geelong), Brent Moloney (Melbourne), Dale Morris (Western Bulldogs), Chris Newman (Richmond), Ryan O'Keefe (Sydney), Russell Robertson (Melbourne), Jarrad Waite (Carlton).

Australia v Ireland, Subiaco Oval, Perth, 11.45am (Irish time) On TV: RTÉ 1. On Radio: MW and LW

Rulesrules: The name of the game

• The game is played 15-a-side, with eight interchange players, who can constantly rotate throughout the match. Each team line out with a goalkeeper and 14 outfield players, as in Gaelic football.

• There are two referees, two linesmen and two umpires.

• Goalposts have bars and nets, as in Gaelic football, with "behind" posts, as in Australian Rules, set 6.4 metres outside the goalposts.

• The tackle allows a player in possession to be held below the shoulders and above the thighs, but pushing on the back is a foul.

• A goal is worth six points and is scored into the net. An over is worth three points and is scored between the posts and over the bar. A behind is worth one point and is scored between the behind posts and goalposts.

• The ball is a regulation Gaelic football.

• A mark, as in Australian Rules, is awarded to a player catching the ball in the air after it has been kicked at least 20 metres, provided it hasn't touched the ground or posts since the kick.

• Players are allowed run with the ball provided it is hopped or touches the ground every 15 metres, up to a limit of 30 metres. Soloing, hand-to-toe, every 15 metres is allowed as many times as the player wishes.

• Each match lasts for four quarters of 20 minutes, the end of which is sounded by a siren. Play is ended by one of the referees signalling he has heard the siren.

• Scoring after the siren is allowed if one of the referees deems the ball has been kicked or if a free-kick or mark has been earned before it sounds.