GAELIC GAMES:As the void left by the cancelling of this year's International Rules series now hits home, the GAA have finally confirmed talks with their Australian counterparts, designed to at least discover whether the series has any immediate future.

This time last year the GAA were looking forward to two sellout games, in Galway and Croke Park, and to the generating of significant profile in what is typically the off-season, and it appears the full realisation of what they are missing is giving the effort to revive the series some momentum.

GAA president Nickey Brennan yesterday announced a meeting would take place within three weeks, coinciding with the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup in France. AFL president Andrew Demetriou is due in France for the World Cup final on October 20th, and while nothing has been agreed in advance, Brennan sounded optimistic discussions there could bear fruit.

"We're ready to go on a particular date, in and around the World Cup final, and just waiting for confirmation from them," said Brennan. "But it's only talk about talks, if I could put it as silly as that. They've got some information about our reaction to last year's events and know where we're coming from. So it's really about finding out if this thing can move ahead. We won't be making any decision yet, other than deciding if there is a way of at least considering the series, going forward."

The violent and ugly scenes that developed in last year's Croke Park test resulted in the 2007 series, set for Australia, being shelved, and this meeting with Demetriou will mark the first formal talks between the associations since then. Brennan, however, also made it clear the fallout from that series has not diminished.

"My annoyance at what happened last year hasn't changed," he said. "But feedback from managers and players expressed the wish that the series should be continued, and as president I have to consider their views."

It had been suggested the cancelling of the series had increased the incentive for young GAA players to try their hand at the Australian game; the Armagh underage star Kevin Dyas was only last week offered a contract with the Collingwood AFL club.

"I can't imagine the county will be happy to lose a player like that," added Brennan, "and that's the feeling I'm getting, that there is an annoyance out there. But in an overall context it's still not that many. And I've said all along that we can't stop these players from going. It's a free choice, and we certainly won't be putting rules in place.

"And I honestly don't think that whether we continue with the International Rules series or not, it will have any great impact on these players travelling Down Under to play Aussie Rules."

Brennan then clarified elements of his new disciplinary measures, as outlined at Saturday's special congress in Croke Park, including the idea of an independent video-review panel: "I don't see them specifically as a citing panel. They will review videos brought to their attention by the Competitions Control Committee (CCC). Currently, the CCC brings the video to the attention of the referee. In the future that may go to a video review panel, and they will make the decision whether or not the player has a case to answer. But under rule now, incidents can be reviewed on video evidence anyway.

"I'll meet with the Rule Book Task Force and outline to them in more detail what I have in mind. How quickly they can address (matters) I can't be sure, and if it will be the special congress in January, but I'd be hopeful by the April congress in Sligo we will have something on the table."

Finally, Brennan rejected criticism of the revised league and championship formats for hurling, also agreed on Saturday, which marked further change in an already highly changeable structure: "That's been the history of hurling formats over the last number of years. And I'm not convinced it won't be changed again. But bear in mind there is no appetite to change the Munster championship. Galway want to stay in Connacht, and not come into Leinster. Leinster now don't want Galway to come in. Antrim want to play in Ulster, and yet they want to play elsewhere. The provincial winners want to get automatically into the (All-Ireland) semi-final.

"So try to reconcile all those scenarios if you're a member of the Hurling Development Committee.

"In fairness to Galway and Antrim, they can have some reason to be peeved. And it may well be that down the road there will be a more radical change. Some people say we're just tinkering around, and it's hard to argue with that, but what happened at the weekend has succeeded in reducing the number of round-robin games, and freed up more space for club competitions. Is it a perfect system? No. Because getting a perfect system is nigh impossible."