International Rules News: With the GAA today announcing final plans to safeguard the future International Rules series with Australia and naming the new Irish manager, the next task will be winning back the full commitment of the players. The violent scenes in Melbourne last October left many players questioning their future in their game, not least Dublin's Bryan Cullen.
The hugely versatile Cullen - he even played in goal for a while against Australia - was one of the Irish players to openly admit he wouldn't be rushing back to get involved in this year's series, if he returned at all.
But the chances of tempting back players like Cullen will surely increase substantially when, as anticipated, Seán Boylan is today announced as the new Irish manager.
Boylan's 23 years as Meath manager undoubtedly make him the most qualified man to take up the position to date. And despite describing last year as a "very negative" experience, Cullen sounded a little more optimistic yesterday when assessing the likely future of the series.
"I suppose there were two main reasons why I personally felt it was a very negative experience for me last year," he said. "The foremost reason was the on-pitch violence, which was way over the top.
"That's been well publicised, but the second thing is that it was the end of a very long season for me, coming after the colleges season, the under-21 season, and of course the hard season with Dublin. It was the end of a long three or four years really. So I think I was going out there a bit fatigued, and that probably didn't help either."
Those new plans for the series, including several rule changes, will be formally outlined in Croke Park today following a meeting in Dubai earlier this week between GAA and Australian Football League (AFL) officials.
The GAA's travelling party of president Nickey Brennan, director general Liam Mulvihill and commercial manager Dermot Power arrived home yesterday evening, and the one thing already known to be agreed upon is the series becoming a biennial event - which means there will be no series after this season until Ireland travel to Australia in the autumn of 2008.
Cullen was confident that would improve the chances of players recommitting into the future: "I think it will help, certainly in getting out the strongest possible Irish team. I know a lot of players are tired at the end of the championship and like to put the feet up and maybe go away on a holiday."
As for the rule changes designed to crack down on indiscipline, only time will reveal their effectiveness. It was agreed in January that any player shown a red card is dismissed for the rest of the game, with a penalty awarded to the opposing team regardless of where the foul is committed.
Yet no matter what is agreed, Cullen has come round a little in recent months and the thought of lining out for Ireland again - and maybe even making amends for last year - appears to have induced new motivation.
"Right now I think I'd have to wait and see how I feel at the end of the championship. If I'm injury-free and feeling fresh I'd definitely like to be part of the Irish team again. I definitely wouldn't close the door on it completely.
"And I think most of the lads were very disappointed with the way it went. It just wasn't what we expected at all. I can't speak about their feelings on the future but I'd be a little surprised if the majority of them didn't come back."
