The concept for the series originates from the Australian Football World Tour, which took place in 1967 and 1968. The tour saw a collection of Australian footballers from the VFL, SANFL and WAFL competitions travel to Ireland for an itinerary of matches played under modified Gaelic football rules. The first proper series took place in Ireland in 1984 under a three match format, whereby the team accumulating the most wins from the series were victors. Following poor Australian crowds and relative lack of interest in 1990, the series was revived in 1998 under a two match aggregate points format. The popularity of the series saw it continue over the next eight years, until violent on-field brawling in the mid 2000s saw it cancelled in 2007. A women's series was staged in Ireland in 2006, which to this date remains the only female series to have taken place between the nations. An under-17 boys series was held each year between 1999 and 2006, though was abandoned thereafter. The series returned in 2008 though featured randomly on the calendar over the next decade, going unscheduled in 2009, 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2019. Since 2014 the Australian team has endeavoured to pick players who have been selected in an All-Australian team on at least one occasion in their careers. This followed the 2013 series which was notable for the inclusion of an Australian team made up of exclusively Indigenous players, known as the Indigenous All Stars. Ireland inflicted the largest victory in the history of the series.