Gaelic Games News round-up: The GAA's experimental rules still look set to survive the forthcoming National Leagues.

The football rules task force met in Croke Park last night to discuss the continuing unrest surrounding the use of the sin bin, but even minor changes before the league must still be agreed upon with the hurling rules task force, and then approved by the GAA's Management Committee.

According to Tommy Moran, the president of the Connacht Council and chairman of the task force, last night's discussions were more a case of reviewing the rules rather than recommending any changes.

"This meeting had been planned before the experiments were actually tried out," he said. "It's not a reaction to anything that happened since the games have actually started. As soon as we'd drawn up these experiments we agreed to discuss their impact after a couple of weeks.

"Of course the sin bin has caused the main problems, but a lot of the reaction I've got is that there has been a lot less fouling. But we still feel we have to clarify what exact offences deserve a sin bin, so that there can't be any doubt about what players are doing wrong."

Included on the seven-man task force is Laois manager Mick O'Dwyer, who admitted after Sunday's O'Byrne Cup semi-final win over Kildare that some change was needed in the current format. Laois had four players sin-binned, the same as Kildare, and yet Moran is still confident that the rule can work, even if some alteration is necessary.

"We've already taken on board a lot of the reaction from the games that have been played," he added, "and each member of the task force has been in contact with a number of people. The whole idea was to eliminate the deliberate fouling, this deliberate blocking of players after they've passed the ball, and other such cynical stuff. It was never our intention to spoil the game.

"So our main concern is to clarify the whole thing a little more. But there won't be any change before this weekend's matches.

"Every national referee will also meet before the league, and they will have to be clear on what the rules are, and of course the public too. But I don't think there's much we need to change about the other ones, such as pick-up or the use of the tee in the kick-out. People seem happy enough with those."

The management committee will meet on January 28th - just over a week before the start of the National Football League - and based on Moran's comments it appears they will be encouraged to prolong the life of the sin bin for at least the duration of the league. April's Congress will then decide if they should be formally adopted.

The GAA, meanwhile, have confirmed the dates and venues for next month's AIB All-Ireland club semi-finals (see panel).

Former Galway football manager Val Daly is back on the inter-county scene - as forwards coach for Roscommon. Daly, who managed Galway for one year in 1997, has been with the Roscommon panel in recent days and will be joining them on a regular basis as Tom Carr tries to give his team a vital edge in 2005.

Former Offaly manager Gerry Fahy is also on the move. He is teaming up with Galway All-Ireland star Tomás Mannion in Mannion's native club Abbeyknockmoy-Monivea.