As new frontiers go, last Sunday wasn't one the GAA or AFL particularly wanted to explore. The overall trajectory of the International Rules series since its resumption six years ago has been onwards and upwards, but that positive experience has relied on very favourable circumstances.

The first six series have been extraordinarily competitive. Of the 12 Tests played until last Sunday, Australia had won five, Ireland five and the remaining two were draws. So tightly matched had the teams been that only four points separated them over 12 Tests, Ireland having a slight edge, 672-668.

On no occasion had the first Test been lost by more than 10 points. So the second Test has always been within reach, an obvious precondition for maximising interest. It's always been a structural vulnerability in a contest involving only two sides that big wins could unbalance a series.

Yet the miracle of the game up until last weekend was that such disproportion had never threatened to disturb the delicate equilibrium. Even the big series wins of 2000 and 2001 saw relatively modest margins of victory in the first Tests (eight for Australia and six for Ireland respectively), with the damage being done the second day.

Ironically, in the light of last Sunday's crushing victory, the more consistent concerns have been about Ireland's ability to compete. Four years ago then Australian coach Dermott Brereton reckoned at the end of the most decisively won series until this year that the AFL teams had cracked the whole concept.

The basis for this was Brereton's belief that Irish players weren't as fit as their professional opponents and that ball skills without the stamina to sustain them wouldn't win Tests any more. In more recent times, Irish concern has centred on the improvement in the Australians' use of the round ball.

Former Ireland manager Colm O'Rourke felt in Melbourne last year that, with the Australians adapting better to the compromises involved in the game, it would become increasingly difficult for Irish teams to win.

But if International Rules has done anything it has punished hubris. After Ireland had won the first two series, there was a shambolic showing in 2000. Not all of it was avoidable; that year's All-Ireland went to a replay, which took place a day before the first Test.

It also took John O'Keeffe, then Kerry trainer and the one Ireland selector with experience of the international game, out of circulation.

It was therefore appropriate that Ireland, having mounted a sub-standard challenge, got hammered - albeit by one of the best Australian squads of the past six years.

After that big win in 2000 and the conviction it generated that they would always have an edge, the Australian effort a year later was poor and Ireland won well.

This time around, after two consecutive series victories, there have been signs of Australian slippage. The players don't look to have applied themselves as rigorously to the task of preparation.

And there are suspicions that on this occasion the Australians haven't picked the best panel. Never mind the talk about the number of All-Australian award winners. There were no more withdrawals this year than 12 months ago.

When the Australian players' commitment to the series is questioned, it's easy to forget that they have to make considerable sacrifices to play in the international game. They have a very short close season and have to give up two weeks of their holidays to play International Rules.

Coach Garry Lyon has frequently made the point that the more discretion he has in the choice of players the better the panel he can assemble because the demands of the international game differ from Australian Rules. The view is that faster, more elusive players are required.

There are grounds for believing that in pursuit of this ideal the Australians have lost sight of their big advantage in the series: physical aggression and the tackle. It was noticeable at last week's practice match that the visitors weren't as physically aggressive as usual, but Lyon explained that he had been holding back his best cards. In the Test on Sunday those cards went unplayed.

Ironically, it looks as if Australia are missing the physically big players they had come to believe were surplus to requirements in the international game. This year's team lacks the balance a few big men would give to their ball-winning capacity.

Given the shellacking they've received in the Australian media, not to mention their professional self-respect, it's likely the visitors will give a more vigorous account of themselves this weekend, but that mightn't be enough to win the Test.

Ultimately the Australians will learn from the unpleasant experience both in terms of what they want from players and how the opposition should never be underestimated.

For Ireland, there is satisfaction in what was empirically a really good performance and a restoration of the GAA's own pride, which has been stung by the failure to win the past two series.

The game remains fast, exciting and attractive to two groups of elite sportsmen who would otherwise have no international outlet.

As for the public, those who are close to the whole International Rules project probably fret too much over whether it's good for the game to have such an outlandish win for Ireland.

Potential crowds, however, mightn't be as put off by the certain prospect of Ireland lifting the Cormac McAnallen trophy as some believe. We'll see.