INTERNATIONAL RULES:THE ANALYSTS on Australian television were of the opinion that the new rules of the international game had tilted it a bit farther in Ireland's direction. Hard to argue with that but they also agreed that the tweaking had culminated in a pretty effective handicap with this year's series providing two evenly-contested Tests and an outcome still in the balance until the end of the second Test, writes Seán Moran

There may be further tweaking to be done. Australia coach Mick Malthouse, who had borne all the other amendments with good grace, felt that the restrictions on inter-change were unfair on players left sitting on the bench for long periods. It's one of the aspects of the game that Ireland traditionally struggle to implement and judging by the massive effort that went into administering the reduced 10 changes per quarter there could be GAA objections to rolling back on the amendment.

But of course all eyes were on the disciplinary issue. Had there been a hint of a brawl in either of the Tests it would have been impossible to get the project back on the road. Ultimately that turned out to be good news as well. So what's next? In a year's time there will be a series in Ireland, helping to mark the GAA's 125th anniversary with Tests likely to be staged in Casement Park, Belfast, as well as Croke Park.

This inclusion of a venue outside of Dublin proved a marketing success in 2006 with Galway selling out its capacity in Pearse Stadium, leaving just one opportunity for supporters to catch the series in the flagship stadium, which consequently also sold out.

It looks a straightforward plan of action but one that's proving hard to emulate here in Australia. This series attracted an aggregate attendance of 77,976 - on the face of it, not bad but still comfortably the lowest figure for the internationals in Australia since they were resumed in 1998 and the lowest of all those 10 years apart from that tentative inaugural series.

There may be good reasons for the fall in the crowds - Malthouse cited the worsening economic situation - but the decline has to be a concern, a couple of reasons could be linked to the actual evolution of the international game.

The AFL eventually twigged that they needed a different type of player to participate in the international series and so prioritised faster, more skilful players ahead of the bigger footballers, who are a feature of certain central positions in the Australian game.

This has meant that the AFL team of the season, the All-Australian selection, is no longer the basis of the international side just as in Ireland not all of the top players have made a success of the hybrid game. The problem with this from a promotional point of view is that there's only so far a team manager can go with a targeted selection policy before the status of the game suffers.

Secondly the vexed issue of discipline could have an impact. Although Malthouse dismissed the question, there was a sense that Australia lost an edge in having to behave so scrupulously. Their coach said that they would play to win within the rules but any inhibition about physical engagement doesn't suit the AFL players.

One long-term trend that has been interesting is the extent to which the Australians want to retain the series. It had been assumed that the GAA were the dependent partner in this with the AFL more ambivalent. That changed with the withdrawal of Ireland from the series two years ago.

Both then Australia coach Kevin Sheedy and AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou struggled to comprehend the level of anger after the carry-on in the 2006 Croke Park Test. All they could see of the afternoon had been the 82,000 people who had turned up.

In the interim, Australia have had to face the central reality that they can no longer take liberties with the rules to disrupt Ireland. In other words the AFL side must accept that they either play within the rules or the series has no future. That's the stark choice and in fairness to the AFL, Malthouse and his players they have opted to preserve the series.

It was commonly maintained that this year's series had to be about keeping alive the concept and with it the aspirations of rising generations of players to represent their respective countries. One interesting difference of opinion that did arise was that between the teams and their organisations on the subject of series frequency.

According to GAA president Nickey Brennan at Friday's media conference there will be no going back from the decision to place the internationals on a three-year cycle, including one gap year. Players and coaches, however, were disappointed to lose the continuity of an annual series. The suspicion is that this has been more the GAA's idea than the AFL's and is presumably intended as a peace offering to Central Council amid the current anxieties about club fixtures.

Finally whereas tribute has rightly been paid to the success of the social networking between the players, a word should be said about the quality of the groundwork done to give the internationals an optimum chance of survival.

From the joint deliberations of Pat Daly and Kevin Sheahan in reframing the rules and their clarity in communicating them to the teams to the patient and authoritative implementation of the rule book by match officials Pat McEnaney and Stephen McBurney the framework of the game was well explained and established and made a huge contribution to the success of the past fortnight.