When Colin O’Riordan’s mind was finally made up, his 25-player Irish squad confirmed for next month’s first representative AFLW game between Ireland and Australia, the logical next step was the creation of the all-important WhatsApp group.Facing into her seventh season in Australia, having joined the AFL women’s league two years after its inception in 2017, Mayo’s Sarah Rowe is no stranger to such group chats.“If you created a WhatsApp group in Australia, it would all be very positive, very Americanised. It’s very like, everyone get around each other, put your arms around people. But our Irish group chat is just non-stop abuse. We just take the piss out of each other.”That instant ease was helped by the strong ties the Irish contingent in the AFLW have built right across the league. Rowe, who plays for Collingwood, now counts former intercounty rivals Sinéad Goldrick (Dublin) and Vicki Wall (Meath), who line out for Melbourne and North Melbourne respectively, among her friends.“I used to hate playing against Sinéad,” says Rowe of her new team-mate. “I used to not like her because she’s the most white line fever I’ve ever come across. But I’ve gotten to know her now over the last couple of years, I was at her wedding last year, and I absolutely love her to bits.”She adds that the friendships between all the Irish girls have formed through a shared experience of being so far from home. “We understand each other’s unspoken words, you don’t even have to explain things, whereas you’re constantly explaining [to Australians] over here why you are the way you are.“We’ve had to lean on each other a lot.”While the Australians had a much larger crop of players to choose from, the talent and experience in the Ireland squad is a testament to the success of the Irish experiment in the women’s game, with 44 Irish players rostered at clubs for the upcoming AFLW season which gets under way on August 9th.But despite being considered a trailblazer in her adopted sport, Rowe still finds herself having to push passed her natural instincts from Gaelic football.Kate Hore, Georgie Prespakis of Australia and Erika O'Shea, Sarah Rowe of Ireland. Photograph: James Wiltshire/AFL “You never think that you’re part of the furniture,” she says. “You never think that you’ve been here that long, because it’s not home. But you come into a different environment and you really have to open your mind and embrace the uncomfortable situations.“This game is still not completely natural to me,” she adds. “I don’t think any of us Irish ever think that we’re amazing at it, because it’s a chaotic sport. It’s not a perfectionist’s game and you have to embrace the chaos of it. Gaelic football is such a clean-skilled game, whereas with AFL, you have to be relentless with trying to get better because it’s so unpredictable.”Modest as they may be, the Irish players are certainly having an impact in Australia. And regardless or club affiliations, there’s a communal pride in seeing each other excel.“When you hear about how an Irish girl is doing in another team, you’re always listening with pride. It’s not about the individual, it’s about what Irish people represent and how they go about it in sport, how they carry themselves in sporting environments and what we’re known for as a group,” says Rowe.“Most clubs say the same things about Irish players. They’re like, ‘God, they’re stubborn, they’re hardworking, they never listen, they’re always doing it their own way’ – all these things to say we’re all the same. We say we’re not, but we kind of are; we’re all cut from the same cloth.”Since the majority of Irish players in the league play on the outside as wingers, forwards and defenders, O’Riordan – a former Tipperary footballer who became the first Irish head coach in the Australian leagues when he took the top job with the Sydney Swans’ AFLW side last December – will have a bit of patchwork to do in the midfield, where Rowe believes Australia will be strong.But Ireland won’t be lacking the experience to devise a fitting plan. Among O’Riordan’s support staff is Cora Staunton, who spent six seasons with the Greater Western Sydney Giants. The four-time All-Ireland winner with Mayo paved the way for this crop of players having been the first international recruit signed to the AFLW.“We should have no right to win,” says Rowe, adding Ireland are certainly the underdogs going into the game. “We didn’t grow up with this sport. It’s not our sport, it’s theirs, so that puts the pressure on Australia, which is a nice position for us to be in.”Australia v Ireland, North Sydney Oval, Sydney, Saturday, August 1st, 4.15pm local time/7.15am Irish timeIreland squadBláithín Bogue (North Melbourne, Fermanagh); Amy Boyle-Carr (Adelaide, Donegal); Kayleigh Cronin (Adelaide, Kerry); Neasa Dooley (Brisbane, Kildare); Jen Dunne (Brisbane, Dublin); Dayna Finn (Carlton, Mayo); Erone Fitzpatrick (Carlton, Laois); Amy Gavin Mangan (North Melbourne, Offaly); Sinéad Goldrick (Melbourne, Dublin); Rachel Kearns (Geelong, Mayo); Grace Kelly (Adelaide, Mayo); Niamh Kelly (Adelaide, Mayo); Tanya Kennedy (Sydney, Donegal); Orlagh Lally (Fremantle, Meath); Niamh Martin (Hawthorn, Tipperary); Aisling McCarthy (Fremantle, Tipperary); Paris McCarthy (Sydney, Kerry); Áine McDonagh (Hawthorn, Galway); Niamh McLaughlin (Gold Coast, Donegal); Aishling Moloney (Geelong, Tipperary); Eilish O’Dowd (GWS, Leitrim); Orla O’Dwyer (Brisbane, Tipperary); Erika O’Shea (North Melbourne, Cork); Sarah Rowe (Collingwood, Mayo); Vikki Wall (North Melbourne, Meath).