As per the previous year, the series was a single one-off test match, with the winner of the test match claiming the Cormac McAnallen Cup. Ireland were the winners of the series, defeating Australia by 4 points.
Fixture
Test match: Ireland v. Australia, 21 November 2015 at Croke Park, Dublin
Background
Irish team
Newly elected GAA PresidentAogán Ó Fearghail had the luxury of choosing a new Irish management team, after the traditional two-year stint for former manager Paul Earley expired at the conclusion of the previous series.[4] In March 2015, the GAA announced 2002 All-Ireland SFC winning Armagh manager Joe Kernan as the new manager of the Irish team.
For us to be able to put on the green jerseys that [Irish soccer and rugby players] wear with such pride, you see the national anthems and the emotion, we’d just love to have that feeling and that opportunity
Kernan spoke of a desire to emphasise the skills component of the game in his selection policy. He was joined on the selection panel by Pádraic Joyce, Darragh Ó Sé and Dermot Earley Jnr.[6] On 24 October 2015, the GAA announced that Dublin's three-time All-Ireland SFC winning forward Bernard Brogan Jnr would be appointed captain of the Ireland team for test match against Australia. Speaking of the appointment, Brogan stated "it is both an honour and a privilege to not only represent Ireland, but to captain the national team too. As footballers, opportunities to play for Ireland and pit our skills against athletes from other nations and codes are few and far between and next month we will test ourselves against arguably the strongest ever Australian team to come here."[7]Mayo footballer and two-time All StarLee Keegan was named vice-captain.[8]
Australia retained their selection policy of selecting only players who had received All-Australian honours in their careers.[10] The team also retained the services of last year's successful management team, featuring four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson and assistants Ross Lyon and Chris Scott.[11]
It's going to be tough. I'm sure [Ireland] will be smarting a little bit after lowering their colours to us last year. They will have looked at the quality of our players and the way that we played and trying everything they can to win this game and get the trophy back in Ireland
The Australian team held a training camp at a New York college in the week preceding the test match, in a bid to offer further incentive to players considering accepting an offer to play in the team.[13] Retired 400 game player and perennial Australian goalkeeper Dustin Fletcher underwent a fitness test in September 2015 with the view to concluding his football career by playing in his fifth International Rules Series.[14]
The Australian management team announced the formation of a 5-man leadership group on 12 November 2015 at the commencement of their week-long training camp in New York City. Harry Taylor, Nick Riewoldt, Robert Murphy, Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell were named as squad leaders[17] with Hawthorn's Luke Hodge selected as captain of the team.[18] A warm-up match against New York GAA scheduled to be played on 14 November 2015 was cancelled, with the team instead playing an internal scratch match at the training base of NFL franchise the New York Jets.[19]
