International Rules: GAA president Nickey Brennan has all but pulled the plug on the international rules series. In an unexpectedly explicit pronouncement on the controversial second Test in Croke Park on Sunday Brennan said that in his view the international project was finished.

The president's views, expressed in an interview with RTÉ Radio's News at One, came as a surprise given he had told the post-match media conference two days ago he would be making no decision until further consultations had been held with the stake holders.

"My personal view is that the series is over," he told RTÉ's Seán O'Rourke.

These comments will come as a bit of a shock to the AFL party, currently travelling back to Australia, as on Sunday Brennan had specifically undertaken not to be bounced into a decision in the midst of Sunday's highly-charged atmosphere.

"I'm not making decisions this evening," he said on Sunday, "because we've a process in dealing with these matters and we have to go through the official way of dealing with them. Also out of courtesy to the AFL, Andrew (Demetriou, CEO) and his officials, with whom we have an exceptionally good working and courteous relationship, we would not wish to be making decisions here this evening.

"We're entitled to go through due process on this and talk about the series as to what future it has.

"We've just come from a short meeting and we will be discussing that more over the phone in the coming weeks and we would hope to meet up in the early part of next year. Any decision on the series would have to be made by the end of January."

But his comments yesterday have left virtually no room for manoeuvre in the weeks ahead and Brennan even went as far as to suggest that any decision to withdraw from next year's series, the last one under the current agreement between the AFL and the GAA, could be taken on an unilateral basis without further meetings with the association's Australian counterparts.

"Absolutely," he said. "It's very much on the cards at this particular point in time. We will consult with the people involved in the series yesterday, namely Seán Boylan and his management team, Seán Walsh, the tour manager, and the Irish players.

"We're taking very clear messages from around the country, both through phone calls into Croke Park and various sections of the media. We have a Central Council meeting in early December and a management meeting where the matter will be discussed and we will decide then whether we go to meet the Australians in January.

"We're due to go on an All Stars trip to Dubai in January. We may meet them there or we may make the decision beforehand but clearly this series is hanging by the thinnest of threads."

This is the clearest indication yet that the future of the international rules is now in serious doubt. A year ago there was also an outcry over misconduct by Australia in the second Test in Melbourne. New disciplinary measures were intended to ensure there would be no repeat.

Yet the scenes during Sunday's first quarter featured brawls, fights, allegations and counter-allegations of intimidation and provocation and were a prelude to a very one-sided match, which concluded in a second successive steamroller of a win for Australia.

The controversy had been further fuelled by an injury to Graham Geraghty, who was left unconscious after falling awkwardly in a contentious "sling" tackle. The Meath player had to be stretchered off the field and taken to the Mater hospital from where he was discharged on Sunday night.

"I was extremely angry in my position as president, extremely annoyed. This series had great opportunities to restore (after) what happened last year in Australia. We went some way towards that in Galway. It may not have been the most exciting game in the world but at least both teams were intent on playing football. One team certainly wasn't yesterday in the first quarter."

Brennan then went on to apologise to the record international crowd that attended as well as to emphasise Ireland's unhappiness at the conduct of Australian players.

"What happened in Croke Park yesterday was dreadful. I want to apologise to all of the 82,129 who turned up, 20,000 of whom were children. We owe them an apology and I do that now on behalf of the association. I condemn what happened in the first quarter. It should not have happened. Clearly the Irish players were seriously intimidated, Seán Boylan was down to two interchange players for the remainder of the game and it was an unfair contest after that."

The president said he regretted the stage the series had reached because international involvement clearly mattered a great deal to the Irish players.

"That is the real pity. The manner in which Kieran McGeeney spoke in the dressingroom after the match, the pride that he expressed in wearing an Irish jersey and that of all of the players wearing the Irish jersey - bear in mind those guys have been working hard for the last eight weeks. They've taken time off and travelled up to Westmanstown in Dublin to train. They've travelled to Toulouse for a training weekend.

"Even ourselves as officials have travelled to Melbourne to meet the AFL, to Dubai to meet the AFL. Those trips were only one or two days and there was no great enjoyment in travelling those journeys in such a short space of time. We've worked bloody hard over the last 12 months in a lot of areas to make sure this series went back on track after what happened last year Down Under. Sadly, that is not the case and we have some call to make now at this stage on it."

Last December's Central Council meeting reacted furiously to what happened in Melbourne 12 months ago and it took firm assurances from then president Seán Kelly in respect of the upcoming meetings with the AFL to dissuade the meeting from pulling the plug there and then.