The GAA are scheduled to consider a number of motions to scrap the International Rules series at Saturday's Central Council meeting. These are a reflection of the growing unhappiness with the international game after the violent scenes in October's second Test in Melbourne.
There was widespread condemnation of the scenes, which led to Australian co-captain Chris Johnson being suspended for five matches (effectively two and a half years), in Ireland and a questioning of the series' future.
It is thought likely that GAA president Seán Kelly will move to defer consideration of Saturday's motions until he and a senior delegation of officials, including president-elect Nicky Brennan and director general Liam Mulvihill, has held scheduled talks with their AFL counterparts in Australia early in the New Year.
Already some counties have received proposed motions for next year's annual congress from their clubs. The latest is the Spa club in Kerry, which has moved for the upcoming county convention: (a) That the compromise rules tournament be discontinued to avoid risk to Gaelic players and also to enable county and district committees' competitions to be completed without this interruption.
(b) That the financial outlay on the compromise rules tournament is converted to a holiday fund for the All-Ireland hurling and football winners.
Section (b) is misinformed in that the International Rules series is self-financing and actually returns a modest profit (and presumably it isn't the intention to require All-Ireland winners' holiday funds to compensate the GAA.
Saturday's meeting will also consider a request from the FAI and IRFU to make Croke Park available for soccer and rugby internationals. The question of leasing the venue for fixtures within the terms of last April's congress motion will be discussed.
It has been denied that the use of the ground for such matches next year has been requested by the soccer and rugby authorities because of the state of Lansdowne Road's north terrace, which was closed for the recent rugby internationals after a fire before the Ireland-New Zealand match.
There has been recent speculation that the damage would prove too costly to be undertaken this side of the redevelopment.
"Definitely not," according to a GAA source. "The IRFU have been categorical about that and released a statement last week saying that there is no further problem with the terrace and that its repair is not a costly matter. There has been acceptance that we'll be talking about the year after next. The IRFU already accept that they'll be operating at Lansdowne Road in 2006."
The terms of the motion passed at congress covered the leasing of Croke Park when approved by Central Council and on the closure of Lansdowne Road for redevelopment. The trigger for this, according to Kelly will be when planning permission is granted for the work on the Ballsbridge venue.
In the meantime Central Council are being asked to give the request the go-ahead on the basis that should there be any problem with the use of Croke Park the other sports bodies would have to look elsewhere to stage their internationals in 2007, which - allowing for the long, required lead-in periods for competitive fixtures and the need for certainty - isn't that far away. This weekend's meeting will discuss the issue on foot of talks between the GAA, FAI and IRFU in recent weeks.
The other contentious issue on the agenda will be the Disputes Resolution Authority, whose first six months will be reviewed by Central Council. The DRA had a controversial summer with a number of high-profile decisions in its inaugural few months after being established at this year's congress.
Concern from the counties is believed to centre on the ease with which parties are accessing an authority that had been intended for complicated cases otherwise destined for the courts.
Central Council will be meeting in camera and the GAA has denied that this is because of the sensitive nature of the topics under discussion, pointing out that it is now the norm for these meetings to be held in private.
