BEFORE Friday night's first International Rules Test against Ireland, Australia's coach Rodney Eade reminded his troops that they were entering a two-part, eight-quarter game.

With the series to be decided on aggregate points between the Etihad Stadium contest and next week's Second Test at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast, Eade urged the Australians never to give up.

If they were in front, they were to keep on pressing. If behind, keep clawing at the deficit until the final siren.

In light of a dominant performance by Ireland, Australia found itself in the latter situation, but was unable to carry out the coach's wishes.

Up by 24 points at half-time and then 33 points at three-quarter time, the visitors ran away further in the final quarter, booting two of their four 'unders' to win by an International Rules record 44 points.

It was a result that disappointed both Eade and his players, leaving them a near-impossible task to reclaim the Cormac McAnallen Cup.

"All night it looked like we were going to come, we were going to have that little run-on and peg them back a bit," defender Shaun Grigg said.

"But it was disappointing the way they ran away with it in the last quarter."

Clearly the young Australian team was on a steep learning curve.

Grigg noted that while his teammates "played it as an AFL game, where it's clearly not," the Irish moved the round ball with astounding pace and precision, found their forwards in the right areas and converted opportunities with ease.

While the Australians - who are professional athletes as opposed to the Irish amateurs (save for their own AFL contingent) - were expected to outrun the visitors, particularly towards the end of the match, it didn't work out that way.

It's hard to show an edge in fitness when you're chasing all night, noted Grigg.

"It's harder to run defensively than offensively, obviously, and they had the ball in their hands way more than us," the Richmond player said.

"Once you're running forward you don't really have to run the other way."

The Irish also surprised with their physicality, while the Australians showed a reluctance to fully impose themselves on the contest for fear, suspected their coach Eade, of going outside "the spirit of the game".

"Up the field their attack on the ball was pretty good," Grigg said.

"We're going to have to better that on the Gold Coast.

"The whole team is going to step up in that way.

"We'll attack the ball very hard."