Herald Sun football writer Jon Ralph says it's time to end the International Rules Series

JON Ralph says the International Rules series may have drawn its final breath over the weekend.

International Rules 2nd Test

THE International Rules series is a tired, stale format which surely drew its final breath over the weekend.

No one cares about it, no one watches it, and truth be told, if team management banned drinking in Ireland no players would consent to be selected.

What is essentially a glorified footy trip and tourist jaunt had a horror second Test: the Aussies were annihilated by a record score and worst of all, North Melbourne's Lindsay Thomas involved in an ugly late bump.

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He was later cleared, but do you think senior coach Brad Scott would have let him play again if he had missed Rounds 1-3 and the Roos suffered more agonising close losses with Thomas sidelined?

It is an indictment on International Rules that late withdrawals and non-interest meant we couldn't even field a full side, Mark Evans revealing last week that the AFL could only find 20 indigenous players for the 23-man squad.

Then team management went and allowed 21st man Lance Franklin a three-day fly-in, fly-out cameo, a horrific message for the players supposed to be giving their all for the Australian cause.

Continuing discussions about format, venues and series dates mean the series is not officially done, but it is time someone stood up to say what everything is thinking.

End it now.

The International Rules flop comes as yet another AFL tradition — state-based representative football - reaches its line-in-the-sand moment.

The AFL has given preliminary approval for a representative game in March, with the AFL's Andrew Dillon and AFLPA's Ian Prendergast working through the format in recent weeks.

It is safe to say there is no chance of a State-of-Origin "Victoria versus South Australia" concept.

More likely is east versus west, with the AFLPA plan last year aligning Melbourne eastern suburbs clubs Hawthorn, Richmond, Collingwood, Melbourne and St Kilda with eastern seaboard clubs Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast, Sydney and Greater Western Sydney.

The rest of the Melbourne clubs play with the four sides from Western Australia and South Australia — West Coast, Fremantle, Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

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But whatever the official format, it is a huge challenge for the player union to have real buy-in from the players.

Not buy in on social media and in the lead-up to the contest before dictating game time or pulling out days before the game with a phantom injury.

True buy-in that includes ferocious attack on the ball during the entire game, not the kind of rubbish token non-tackling, non-caring stuff we see in American All-Star games.

Because only if we get a killer contest - the best players including Gary Ablett, Lance Franklin, Dane Swan and co. going hell for leather — will the fans back it in with their hearts and minds.

Already clubs are kicking up about player limits from clubs, and wondering if the true national competition we have now means representative games are superseded.

The International Rules series is shot.

Now it is over to the players to take the domestic version off life support, tackling all the same issues that have killed the hybrid series in recent weeks.