At the height of its popularity, a series was played over two Test matches in October/November after the completion of the AFL Grand Final and the All-Ireland Football Final, which were both traditionally played in late September, and the winner was the team with the highest cumulative score over both Tests.

Following poor Australian crowds and a relative lack of interest in 1990, the series was revived in 1998 under a two-match aggregate points format.

It was first awarded in 1998 and named after Jim Stynes, who won the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship with Dublin before joining Melbourne.

With the Demons, he won the 1991 Brownlow Medal, set the record for most VFL or AFL consecutive games played (with 244), was named in Melbourne's Team of the Century, and was elected into the Australian Football Hall of Fame while also playing for both Ireland and Australia in the series.

From 2005, broadcasting extended its reach to the United States via Setanta Sports North America and to Hong Kong via the Australia Network.

[14] The 2014 Test match was broadcast live in the United States and parts of Europe and Asia.

The attendance at the second Test of 82,127 at Croke Park was the largest for an international sports fixture in the country.

Three-time All-Ireland-winning Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has repeatedly called for the series to be disbanded.

He stated in 2008 that the tours to Australia are simply a free holiday for the players involved, before repeating the claim in 2011 and calling on the GAA to withdraw from the Series because it does a "total disservice to the development of Gaelic games on the international stage".

[18] Ex-Kerry footballer Tomás Ó Sé panned the GAA in 2019 for continuing to maintain friendly relations with the AFL, arguing that the series was primarily responsible for AFL clubs scouting emerging Irish talent and leaving clubs and counties with no compensation for their efforts.

[19] The future of the series was brought into doubt in 2005 and 2006, mostly through the on-field actions of some Australian players and excessive physicality by both teams.

[22] During the 2013 series, the possibility of expanding future International Rules games into a tri-series was mooted, in such a way that the series would incorporate the Indigenous All-Stars team that participated in 2013, possibly against an AFL All-Star team for the right to play off against the Irish.

[23] Though this idea never eventuated, the AFL has expressed interest in staging an exhibition Test match in the United States, likely in Boston or New York City.

[26] During a successful training camp in New York City ahead of the 2015 series, Australian coach Alastair Clarkson gave his strongest pitch yet for the expansion of the series to include a Test match in America and even an actual American international rules team, to facilitate a tri-nations format.

[30][31][32][clarification needed] In October 2024, it was announced that AFL and GAA officials were exploring the return of the International Rules series.