New South Wales (right) and Victoria senior men's footballers at the 2018 Australasia Championships in Gaelic Park, Melbourne. Two powerhouses of Gaelic games in Australasia, the states have a rivalry that goes back to 1951. Photo credit: Darken Sportz.
By John Harrington
Australasia Gaelic Games will celebrate their Association’s 50th anniversary in style this week when Melbourne hosts their annual interstate games.
The four-day tournament will see over 500 of the best players in Australia and New Zealand representing 23 state teams in six competitions.
The interstate games will be followed by a gala ball and guests of honour will include GAA President Jarlath Burns; LGFA CEO, Helen O’Rourke; LGFA President, Mícheál Naughton; Camogie CEO, Sinéad McNulty; Leinster GAA Chairperson, Derek Kent; and Ambassador of Ireland to Australia, Tim Mawe.
The state teams are akin to county teams in Ireland in so far as the best club players are chosen to represent their state, and the quality of action on show will be of a very high standard.
“We livestreamed a lot of our state finals this year and even the intermediate finals you were looking at them and thinking they were of the standard of intermediate finals back home,” says Australasia GAA PRO, John ‘Bobs’ Daly.
“We've got so many people arriving every week that the quality of our competitions is improving all the time. When I first arrived here in 2018 you were looking at the state teams and thinking the senior level would be like intermediate level at home, but now the senior level of hurling and football especially in the likes of Melbourne and Syndey and Western Australia, it's on a par with home.
“It'll be hard to call with these championships who will come out on top. New South Wales are traditionally one of the strongest because they have big numbers and Victoria as well, but these championships will be a toss-up.
“The Intermediate Football in both men's and womens have been the most evently contested in the last few years and they'll be very competitive again this year with the likes of Auckland, Canterbury, Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria's second team.”
Victoria (left) and Queensland camogie at the 2016 Australasia Championships in Queensland. Camogie was first played at the interstate championships in 2011. Photo credit: Darken Sportz.
The number of people playing Gaelic games in Australasia has increased significantly in recent years, and not just in the traditional urban centres where GAA clubs are long established.
New clubs have been popping up up in regional areas such as Hamilton and Queenstown in New Zealand and northern Queensland and regional Victoria in Australia.
“I guess the migration from Ireland in recent years and especially after Covid has seen our numbers balloon," says Daly. “Especially in places like Melbourne and Sydney, but all over really.
“In New South Wales last year and this year they had over 2,000 registered players playing championships.
“Also, the underage side of things is going from strength to strength. We sent our first Australasia team over to Féile in Ireland in June and that followed on from a team from Western Australia heading to the Féile in 2019.
“The underage is coming on in leaps and bounds and we have a lot more Australians and indigenous born players now playing which is great to see.
“It would be great to see more and more players graduate from underage to adult level, and that's happening already. South Australia is one example where that is happening. The vast majority of their players are Australian and at the World Games last year they excelled.”
Wellington/Hutt Valley women's footballers celebrating their intermediate triumph in 2022. The intermediate football competitions have been popular additions to the championships since being introduced in 2018. Photo credit: An Astráil.
Organising the interstate championships is a serious logistical challenge but one that the Australasia Gaelic Games committee rises to impressively year after year.
“The fact that these games have been played for pretty much 50 consecutive years is something else really, just given the logistical side of things,” says Daly.
"I'm based here in Wellington in New Zealand. Then you have Perth in Western Australia, it's a huge geographical region. That would like going from Ireland to Dubai, it covers that sort of distance.
“So the fact that we're able to organise things and we have got such a good organisation here at a national level and state level, it's just brilliant we're able to do this.
"We have a great committee that’s brilliantly led by our Chairperson, Ned Sheehy, and secretary, Teresa Daly.
Ambassador of Ireland to Australia, Joseph Small, presenting New South Wales football captain, Arty Lundy, with the Pat J O'Loughlin trophy at the 1982 championships in Brisbane. Behind are NSW GAA great Kerry Murphy, and GAA Australasia secretary, Jim Farnan. Source: Kerry Murphy's Memoirs: The Diaries of an Irish Immigrant.
“It would be remiss of me as well not to mention some stalwarts of our association – it's a privilege to follow in the footsteps of some dedicated volunteers who have been involved in our association from the early days and who, along with trojan work with their own clubs and states, enabled these championships to take place year on year.
“Gerard Roe, served as Australasia secretary with distinction from 1985 to 2023, and also officiated a grand total of 30 Australasia Championship finals. Former president, Seamus Sullivan, served for over 30 years, while also serving as president of his home state in Queensland. While Paddy Hegarty of Victoria has also been a key figure in the role of treasurer for over 40 years.”
You can stay up to date with tournament fixtures, results and tables throughout the week on the Australasia Gaelic Games website: https://australasiangaelicgames.com/fixtures-results/
The championship finals on Saturday 5 October will be livestreamed on the Australasia Gaelic Games Facebook page and YouTube channel.