Australia’s international rules stars heap praise on recent Irish imports to AFL

Oh baby it's cold outside.

Australia are in town this Saturday evening to play Ireland in the latest installment of the International Rules Series, looking to make it two-in a-row over us after last year's win in Perth. Conditions on Saturday evening in Croke Park are set to be pretty miserable, with wind and rain forecast for the 7pm throw-in time. Well it is an Irish November after all. If you live in the sunny Australia, however, you can imagine that current conditions are quite a culture shock for the tourists who left their summer to come to this side of the world. Geelong's Harry Taylor admits his teammates are not looking forward to the bitter winterish conditions ahead of them:

"We saw the forecast and it looks like it will be around 8 (Celsius) as a maximum and 2-3 as a minimum. For most of us we're not used to that and maybe 10-11 degrees is the coldest we've played in. Nothing below 10 at all, so it will be a shock. "But if we can play in beanies and scarves... all that sort of stuff needs to be decided but the boys might be finding it difficult."

David Mundy and Luke Breust should have been prepared for the Irish weather considering they're sharing a dressing room with two Irish teammates at their respective clubs. Sean Hurley is entering his second year at Fremantle, while Conor Glass only signed up with champions Hawthorn in October but has spent considerable time on-and-off with the AFL side over the last year. Hurley is hoping to make a breakthrough to the first team in 2016, and Mundy admits he's been impressed by the now 23-year-old:

"He's got a big learning step to go through but I think his attitude and desire for hard work and to learn our game has been a credit to him. This year he's come a long way and towards the back end of our season he certainly was starting to play good football for our reserve side. So if he keeps on that trajectory he'll be a good asset."

Mundy reveals he had a quick word with the Kildare man before he headed off  for the International Rules Series:

"I've chatted a little bit with Sean. He's given me a few keen insights into the Irish and how you go about it and little things like kicking and game sense."

However the AFL star admitted Hurley was careful not to give too much away about our best players

"No, he kept that information close to his chest, he's certainly still Irish at heart."

Conor Glass is not joining Hawthorn until 2016 as he finishes his studies here, but Luke Breust feels that the young Derryman will be a major asset from what he's seen of the teenager so far:

"I haven't seen him play Gaelic but certainly he's been impressive since he came out to us and constantly out on the track with our coaches and development staff and he's putting in the hours to make it in our game." "If he 's going to make it, he's going to make it. He's putting in the work and from the first time to when he came out to the last time you can see the improvement in his kicking. If he makes it it won't matter if it is with us or any other club."