Page "Australian rules football" Paragraph 23

Since 1967 there have been many matches between Australian Football teams ( mainly from Australia ) and Gaelic football teams ( mainly from Ireland ), under various sets of hybrid, compromise rules known as International rules football.

In 1984, the first official representative matches of International Rules were played, and these were played annually each October between the AFL and the Gaelic Athletic Association, also known as the GAA, between 1998 and 2006.

These were part of the official International Rules Series, which attracted large crowds and media interest in Ireland and Australia.

In 2007 the international rules series was abandoned because of the aggression and the severity of the Australian team in the previous year, but in 2008, under new rules to protect the player with the ball, it resumed in Australia.