Despite a record win (76-32) in the weekend's under-age International Rules first Test against the AFL Academy in Crossmaglen, Ireland coach Tony Scullion has called for a change in the scheduling of the series.

The former Ireland international and Derry All-Ireland medallist said that demands on his players are becoming intolerable.

"I'm not trying to blame anyone in particular for this," he said, "but at this time of the year it's just not feasible to have the depth of panel you need for this series. Players find it hard to get the proper preparation because the schools and colleges competitions are at the height of their seasons.

"On Saturday I had players coming to me after competitive matches to get ready for the first Test the next day. Then the lads went back to their counties the length and breadth of the country and some will be playing in the first league games of the year with their clubs today (Monday).

"The next day there's a get-together in Dublin at three o'clock to prepare for the next Test on Wednesday. On Saturday some of them will be playing minor league matches with their counties. They'll not be fit to walk on Sunday and I'll be lucky if they're fit to run on Wednesday."

Scullion's apprehension hasn't dimmed his satisfaction with the performance at the weekend but as he says: "We have to get something out of the first Test because they will improve over the series.

"The Australians had a warm-up match against an Ulster selection in Casement Park and they ran over them. I said afterwards an under-21 team wouldn't beat them. I was the proudest man to be part of that performance in the first Test because they competed so well."

Ireland are chasing a third successive series victory after a sequence of heavy defeats over the first four years of the resumed international project. But there have been mitigating factors. Two years ago the Australians fielded one player too many for a period of the second Test and, having lost the first Test, forfeited the series.

Last year in answer to the lopsided nature of the series - Ireland's Test wins tended to be narrow and infrequent whereas the defeats, especially in Australia, were sometimes terrifying - Ireland were allowed field an under-18 team and duly won the series.

This year the age advantage has been brought back to under-17½ although it has proved hard to find a broad range of players with precisely that six-month advantage and many of the Irish team will be eligible again next year.

Scullion feels that around October or November - when the senior internationals are played - would be a better time of the year for schoolboys, who wouldn't have the twin pressures of high season on the playing fields and the onset of exams off it.

"It's not really my role to have an input into the timing but it would be great if people could talk about looking at it again because it would make a big difference."

Meanwhile Setanta Ó hAilpín is reported to be moving closer to making his AFL debut with Carlton. The club, which won the pre-season Wizard Cup, lost their first championship match at the weekend and are experiencing an injury crisis.

The Melbourne Age has reported that Carlton coach Dennis Pagan is considering upgrading Ó hAilpín from the club's rookie list as cover for a long-term injury.

The former Cork hurler was poised to make a similar breakthrough last year before injury ended his campaign in June. He has since been joined in Melbourne by his younger brother Aisake, who played a large part in the victory of the family's club Na Piarsaigh in last year's Cork county hurling championship.

Finally those involved in the senior International Rules project will breathe a sigh of relief that Jared Crouch, who broke his collarbone playing for Australia in last autumn's series at Croke Park, remains on track to break the record for consecutive appearances in the AFL.

It would have been an unwelcome reminder to AFL clubs of the dangers involved in releasing their players for the international series had Crouch's sequence been disrupted by the injury. At the weekend he played in his 157th consecutive AFL match and needs only two more starts to break the record of 158 held by Fitzroy's John Murphy.