FYI: What is the difference between Australian rules football and Gaelic (Irish) football?
To the layman's eye, not a lot. Both codes require a lot of running round a large grass pitch while trying to kick or punch a leather ball between two posts. Figure-hugging sleeveless tops and hard-wearing hot pants feature strongly in both sports too. Despite the games' shared ancestry, there are some significant differences between the two.
The Irish play peil or caid, as it is known in Gaelic (though it's also called 'gah' for GAA - the Gaelic Athletics Association) with a round ball, not unlike a soccer ball. The Australians (who call their game football or Aussie rules) chase an oval ball similar to that used in rugby union.
The Irish play on a square pitch, with two vertical posts at each end like those seen in rugby, through which you must propel the ball in order to score a point. Their posts also have nets, below the crossbar, into which the ball can be kicked for a goal, which is worth three points.
The Australians play on an oval pitch with four posts, two of which are taller than the others, at each end; there are no nets. Depending on which posts the ball passes between, a score of either one or six points is gained.
A match can last up to 70 minutes for the Irish and 80 minutes for the Australians. Aussie teams field 18 players each while 15 players take to the pitch for an Irish team.
In both codes, the ball can be passed by way of a kick, an upward punch or a slap of the open hand. Players must bounce the ball in sequences on the ground as they run. Simply throwing the ball is considered a foul in both versions. However, tackling is allowed as both are full contact sports.
The games are believed to have originated in 12th-century Ireland, when the word 'football' was first recorded. What became known as Aussie rules began life around the mid-19th century.
The Australians and the Irish like to form teams and play wherever they find themselves in the world. Indeed, Hong Kong has a thriving GAA amateur league - one team is called the Shek O Bin Lids - and the SAR's Australian community competes in an Asian league and hosts games here.
Occasionally, the two codes take each other on - using a round ball - and the Beijing Irish recently defeated the Australians in a game played under hybrid rules.
Irishman Colin Dixon, who coaches Gaelic football in China and is vice-chairman of the Beijing GAA explains, 'There are strong links between Ireland and Australia.
A few hundred years ago, many Irish people fled the famine and ended up in Britain, the US and, of course, Australia ... It was natural that Gaelic Football would end up being played all over the world, and Ireland has thus passively colonised the globe.
'I believe Australian rules evolved from the Irish game and the oval ball may have been introduced via the British influence and their game of rugby.
'The Australian game is professional whereas Gaelic football remains amateur. Games between top players from both codes have become popular in recent years, via the 'compromise rules series'.
'Here, in China, we have a great relationship with the Australian lads, and in the past few years we have had our own 'compromise rules' games. And I'm pleased to say we won the game last month.'
