GAA to meet AFL next month

The GAA and AFL will meet next month to discuss proposals for the resumption of the international rules series.

A delegation of the GAA's President Nickey Brennan, Head of Games Pat Daly and former Ireland captain and 2006 selector Anthony Tohill will meet their Australian counterparts in Dubai.

AFL spokesperson Patrick Keane confirmed the meeting would be going ahead but said that there were no details of what would be discussed. "As yet we have no agenda. We're waiting to hear from the GAA and it'll be a matter of what they have to say."

The organisations met in Paris last October for preliminary discussions during which the GAA made it clear the major issues from an Irish perspective were discipline, new rules and when any resumption of the Test series might take place.

According to Keane the Australian view of the internationals is positive.

"Our view would be that the series has a lot of merits. It has the support of the players, who value playing for their country, attendances and viewership, which is pretty difficult to achieve for a game that's so new. There are ongoing issues and we're waiting to see what the GAA has to say on them."

Whereas it was the violent scenes in both 2005 and 2006 that triggered the suspension of the series another serious threat to the game's future has been the inability of Ireland to compete with the tactical advances made by Australia. Under former Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy, the AFL teams have become faster and far more adept with the round ball.

"In those years we picked very specific teams," says Keane, "but in 2004 we were absolutely thumped. The whole history of the competition is that as soon as one side thinks it has it measured, the other bounces back."

Nonetheless the most important issue for resolution is that of indiscipline and on-field violence. One of the major grievances on the Irish side is that the AFL players at times behave in internationals in a way that they know would be unacceptable in their own game.

"I think part of the reason is differences in what's seen as an offence in the two codes is very different. A little backhander isn't considered unusual here but flicking at someone's ankles is unacceptable.

"It's exactly the opposite in the GAA because the ball is on the ground so much that there's a lot of boots flying."

He also believes the lack of familiarity between the players has contributed to the hostility - a point raised by the last Australia coach Kevin Sheedy, who regretted the lack of a social dimension to the series.

"If players don't know each other," says Keane, "it's very different than if they're facing someone they've known for two or three years. There's an understanding of each other. In international rules it's almost unheard of for our players to play three series and unusual to play two."