The first quarter at Croke Park was chaotic

The chaotic first quarter witnessed some disgraceful scenes with the Australians targeting opponents and the Irish responding in kind.

Australia were always the better side and led 27-16 at the midway point.

The visitors outscored Ireland 30-4 in the third quarter and went on to win the series by 30 aggregate points.

However, the violence in Sunday's game is sure to lead to renewed calls for the GAA to walk away from the compromise rules code even though the contest was a 82,000 sell out.

The unseemly scenes started before the ball had even been thrown in with several players from both sides being involved in fisticuffs and rucks.

Chaos ensued for the majority of the first quarter with Brent Stanton notching an early Australian goal while a brawl was taking place some 50 metres away in the middle of the field.

The appalling behaviour continued and Ireland's Paul Galvin and Matthew Lappin were the first players to be yellow carded after a spot of brawling while Tadgh Kennelly was forced to depart after being on the receiving end of some rough treatment.

The threatened revenge on Graham Geraghty then materialised when the Meathman was knocked unconscious after a heavy challenge.

By the 20th minute, Australia had wiped out Ireland's First Test lead by taking a 16-1 advantage although Benny Coulter, Alan Brogan and Dermot Earley then posted overs to cut the visitors' lead to six points.

Graham Geraghty was knocked unconscious at Croke Park

Brogan's over came after Down star Coulter had been on the receiving end of a disgraceful challenge from an Australian defender.

Australia hit three unanswered overs in the second quarter to move 27-10 ahead with Lindsay Gilbee, Aaron Davy among the scorers as the Irish failed to score for 14 minutes.

The Irish did fight back with Joe Bergin's goal chance being bravely deflected for a behind by Ryan O'Keefe while Armagh's Steven McDonnell clipped the bar with a goal attempt as the Aussie lead was cut to 27-16 by half-time.

Once again, Australia made the better start after the restart with Dustin Sherman, Barry Hall, Ryan O'Keefe and Nick Davis adding 11 unanswered points to extend the visitors' lead to 22.

The Irish didn't help their chances by dropping the ball into the Aussie goalkeeper Fletcher's hands on three occasions when they had excellent scoring opportunities.

Ireland then suffered a hammer blow when the dominant Aussies notched the second goal of the match with Brendan Goddard hammering home from close range after Alan Quirke had failed to hold Aaron Davey's shot.

Alan Brogan finally opened Ireland's third quarter account with an over but the Aussies replied with their second goal in four minutes when Ryan Crowley scored from close-range after an unselfish pass from the excellent Ryan O'Keefe.

The goal helped extend the visitors' lead to 57-20 by the end of the quarter and there was no way back for Ireland.

The final quarter was a lacklustre affair with the series already in the bag for the dominant Aussies.

The violence will grab all the headlines and will deflect the attention away from the fact that the Irish were found wanting in terms of basic skills against a team which had superior footballers as well as fitter athletes.

Ireland: A Quirke, M O Se, A Moyles, SM Lockhart, T Kelly, K McGeeney, A O'Mahony, T Kennelly, C Begley, P Galvin, N Murphy, S Cavanagh, S McDonnell, G Geraghty, B Coulter. Interchange: P Barden, J Bergin, A Brogan, D Earley, K Lacey, K Reilly, S Ryan.

Australia: B Hall, M Voss, A Raines, R O'Keefe, L Gilbee, J Sherman, M Lappin, A Schneider, R Crowley, J McDonald, B Stanton, C Brown, D Fletcher, A Davey, A Selwood. Interchange: M Davis, K Simpson, B Peake, C Bateman, D Pearce, G Johncock, D Mundy.