Seán Moran

The ruling conventions of the game were dismantled at Subiaco Oval last night with Australia winning a home Test for the first time in 13 years. Coincidentally that match was also in Perth but it was a dead rubber as Ireland had already won the series.

This victory was as comfortable as the 10-point margin suggests and has largely assured the winners of a very first home series success. Neither country has lost a first Test by anything like this margin and gone on to overhaul the deficit.

Deepening Ireland's gloom was the frustration that the match was there for the taking but abysmal finishing prevented the side from building a scoreline that would have challenged the Australians.

Had John O'Keeffe been told his team would concede 56 points, he would have been quite confident of exceeding that.

Only once have Ireland scored fewer points than the 46 that made up last night's total. The telling statistics are that Australia outscored their visitors by three goals to one whereas Ireland scored more one-pointers - the score invented to reward the Aussies for getting within shouting distance of the posts. But on this occasion you'd have been hard pushed to work which side was only barely familiar with the round ball.

The match turned on events in the third quarter - known as the "moving quarter" in the AFL - when Ireland missed a sequence of good opportunities early on and went on to concede two goals in three minutes just before the end. The sense of unease that attended the misses was fully borne out as the Australians took the lead for the first time and went into the final quarter with momentum.

Yet it had all started so brightly for Ireland who led by 25-11 at the end of the first quarter. They were using wind advantage to exert maximum pressure.

Steven McDonnell had a great debut in the right corner, importing his form with Armagh onto the international stage.

Ciarán McManus played well at midfield, winning possession and restricting opposing captain Shane Crawford's influence to far less than Australia would have hoped for.

After just six minutes Benny Coulter hit a goal, exploiting Australian indecision as he soloed forward until within the target zone when he punished them for backing off by driving into the net. Goalkeeper Glen Jakovich could have done better but despite this unpromising start, which seemed to confirm the misgivings about him, he went on to improve greatly.

That Ireland had more than half their scoring done by the end of the first quarter tells its own story and the drift was noticeable from the 20th minute on.

Within six minutes of the restart Australia had 11 points of the deficit back. Nathan Brown began to play to his potential and a star was revealed in Barry Hall.

From the start the big Sydney Swans forward wrought havoc in the Irish defence. Cormac McAnallen, Paddy Christie and Graham Canty all had a go at marking him but to no avail. His six and a half foot bulk was unbeatable in the air and his strength made him virtually impossible to knock off the ball.

All of which might have been expected but furthermore his technique with the round ball was assured and accurate and he was Australia's top scorer with 13 points. By contrast Coulter, after his goal, had four chances of overs but hit all of them behind.

Kevin Hughes kicked Ireland's first over of the second quarter when Colin Corkery was lurking inside.

At the time it seemed a good idea to steady the ship but in time the waste of a goal chance would appear significant. Australia had begun to tighten up at the back with Leo Barry covering a lot of ground. Although the match was largely free of unpleasantness a couple of incidents happened in the second quarter.

Matthew Scarlett gave Des Dolan a bloody nose and escaped censure - at least until the video is reviewed next week. Before half-time Mark Bickley, who is retiring at the end of the series, caught Tom Kelly with a ferocious skelp and was sin-binned.

The final quarter brought the committee further work.

McAnallen and Brad Johnson were also yellow carded whereas Kieran McGeeney saw fit to punch Brent Harvey in the stomach in full view of the camera. It was also in front of GAA referee Brian White. Whether he saw it or not, he took no action.

With the margin down to five at half time, 32-27, Ireland needed to start pulling away again. Instead they fluffed their lines. Laois defender Joe Higgins moved to the attack and got on a fair bit of ball. In one crucial sequence, he cut in on goal but his shot was blocked.

The rebound came to Pádhraic Joyce but his attempt to pick a spot through the rapidly crowding goalmouth ended with Jakovich saving comfortably. There followed a succession of behinds from Kelly, Coulter and Beano McDonald and suddenly the match flipped.

In the 54th minute a glorious ball from Robert Murphy found Chris Johnson who ran the mark quickly and placed his namesake Brad whose shot was deflected past Enda Murphy by McAnallen for Australia's first goal.

The warning signs had been there earlier when Murphy had tipped a shot by Brown behind. But worse was around the corner.

Hall had no sooner added an over to put Australia in front for the first time when Chris Johnson was brought down by McAnallen for a penalty. The vice captain took it himself from the hand. His finish was strong and precise and suddenly the match perspective had gone from Ireland's rear view mirror to the windscreen.

Although scores can come quickly in International Rules, there was a sense that Ireland had shot their bolt. Stephen Kelly used his pace to invigorate Ireland's attack but too often the wrong option was taken. There was a persistent tendency to hand pass to players already marked, which is as good as giving the ball away.

Crawford's 70th-minute goal put the seal on a great win for Australia after Harvey had sliced through the now frantic Ireland defence. Still the scores wouldn't come at the other end and so the home team brings a double-digit lead into next Friday's second test in Melbourne.

AUSTRALIA

27. G Jakovich (West Coast); 16. L Power (Brisbane), 28. J Crouch (Sydney), 30. M Scarlett (Geelong); 2. C Johnson (Brisbane), 5. R Smith (Western Bulldogs), 31. B Kirk (Sydney); 7. A Simpson (Kangaroos), 9. S Crawford (Hawthorn, capt); 6. B Johnson (Western Bulldogs), 8. D Wells (Kangaroos), 12. L Hayes (St Kilda); 29. M Pavlich (Fremantle), 7. N Brown (Western Bulldogs), 1. B Hall (Sydney).

Inter-change: 3. C Bizzell (Melbourne), 4. P Hasleby (Fremantle), 14. R Murphy (Western Bulldogs), 15. B Harvey (Kangaroos), 20. J Rawlings (Hawthorn), 21. L Barry (Sydney), 26. M Bickley (Adelaide), 44. D Wirrpunda (West Coast).

Scorers: B Hall 13 (0-4-1), B Johnson 7 (1-0-1), C Johnson, S Crawford 6 (1-0-0) each, N Brown 6 (0-1-3), C Bizzell 4 (0-1-1), P Hasleby, L Hayes, B Harvey, M Pavlich 3 (0-1-0) each, A Simpson, D Wells 1 (0-0-1) each.

Yellow cards: M Bickley (40 mins), B Johnson (72 mins).

IRELAND

1. E Murphy (Kildare); 6. P Christie (Dublin), 21. C McAnallen (Tyrone), 19. SM Lockhart (Derry); 20. A Lynch (Cork), 4. G Canty (capt; Cork), 25. K McGeeney (Armagh; 2. J Bergin (Galway), 22. C McManus (Offaly); 26. P McGrane (Armagh), 17. P Joyce (Galway), 8. B Coulter (Down); 24. S McDonnell (Armagh), 23. B McDonald (Laois), 12. D Dolan (Westmeath).

Inter-change: 7. C Corkery (Cork), 9. G Cox (Roscommon), 10. C Daly (Offaly), 11. S Kelly (Limerick), 14. S Ryan (Dublin), 15. J Higgins (Laois), 16. K Hughes (Tyrone), 18. T Kelly (Laois).

Scorers: S McDonnell 16 (0-5-1), B Coulter 10 (1-0-4), J Higgins, K Hughes, P Joyce, C McManus, K McGeeney 3 (0-1-0) each, T Kelly 2 (0-0-2), S Kelly, D Dolan, B McDonald 1 (0-0-1) each. Yellow cards: C McAnallen (72 mins)

Attendance: 41,228

Referees: B White (Wexford) and S McBurney (AFL).