Winners write history - or in this case rewrite it. "This game has come of age in Perth tonight," bellowed the television commentator as Australia celebrated their first Test win on home soil since the International Rules series resumed five years ago.

Irish teams in previous series here in Australia had the same feeling, but with a first series win at home looking safe after a solid, 10-point win, Australia could be forgiven for deeming history to have just begun.

Glen Jakovich worked the crowd of over 40,000. A local player with the West Coast Eagles, he wouldn't have made the selection as an outfield player, but as soon as Andrew Kellaway was ruled out of the panel, he had contacted manager Garry Lyon and expressed interest in being the goalkeeper.

His place had been vaguely under threat during the week but, after a rocky start, Jako had come good and was sharing the moment with the home supporters.

The home players formed a circle and lustily sang Advance Australia Fair.

"The national anthem is our club song," said a happy manager, Garry Lyon, at the press conference afterwards.

While the winners performed an encore in their dressing-room complex, the Irish quarters at the far end of Subiaco Oval were ringing to a different sound.

A howling, raging diatribe triggered anxious glances amongst the assembled media. Team officials discreetly closed the doors to maintain the privacy of Ciarán McManus's thoughts, although the Offaly player didn't seem reticent about sharing them.

When he emerged, he had gathered his thoughts and chief amongst his regrets was the poor quality of finishing demonstrated by Ireland.

"We know we should have had more points tonight. I'd a bad wide myself, but the game is so fast and you're under such pressure when you kick. You'd so many new lads there and they'd never been in a situation when there's 40,000 against you, and when they get a run on us the whole stadium vibrates. We'll give it one hell of a bash next week."

Ireland manager John O'Keeffe also acknowledged the deficiencies in that department.

"We have players in the forward line who you wouldn't expect to miss those kicks. That's unusual for Gaelic footballers. That's something we can work on during the week. We also had 17 new players on the field experiencing that sort of intensity for the first time."

The name on everyone's lips was Barry Hall, the tall, lean villainous looking corner forward who won nearly everything that came his way and showed good kicking technique.

"Barry Hall was giving us an awful lot of trouble in the air," said O'Keeffe, "and I felt the breaking ball was going to fall right for the Australians and that's what happened. We'll try and get our heads around that the next day, but it won't be easy because we don't have anyone at our disposal of that size.

"For a player who's just come into this game he's an exceptionally skilful player. Without a doubt he gave us the most trouble."

Hall himself was impressed with the experience. "We said that during the week it's got to be the closest thing to a Grand Final (Aussie Rules) day and I was very excited to be part of it."

As the players trooped to the showers former Ireland manager Colm O'Rourke shook his head gravely. "It will be very hard to come back from 10 points," he said. "I was hoping that Ireland might get a goal before the end to bring it back a bit for next week."

O'Keeffe has to be more upbeat. If he doesn't believe and convince the players of that belief, the second Test could be a disaster.

"You could look at 10 points as two scores," he said optimistically. "It's unlike the previous two tours when Ireland won the first Test and went on to win the series. It's up to us to work this out together, how we get this 10 points back. I told the players this is only half-time and that this game is by no means over."

Lyon, with the comfort of the 10 points in his pocket, gave a scalded reaction to the suggestion that the series was over.

"Absolutely not. I'm not being cute or smart about this but this is an unpredictable game. Anything can happen."

And that unpredictability will have to keep us all going for another seven days.

Meanwhile, Tipperary forward Declan Browne is hopeful he might be able to play some part in the second Test. Browne is recovering from a dead leg sustained in last Tuesday's practice match against Western Australia.

According to O'Keeffe, the player is off crutches and making good progress.

Browne himself said that, whereas he wouldn't even describe himself as hopeful yet, there had been improvement.