International Rules/News round-up: This year's International Rules series may include a Test at a venue outside Dublin. According to GAA president Seán Kelly the possibility of staging a home international away from Croke Park for the first time in 20 years is under consideration.

"We have been looking at playing one Test at a provincial venue. That is something we have discussed, although we haven't finally made a decision on it yet, we will do so in the very near future when we have everything in place.

"But we are thinking seriously about playing it at a provincial venue. It might mean less numbers but in terms of promoting the game and allowing people who mightn't get to Croke Park to attend there would be a lot of positives, so we're looking at it very seriously."

GAA director general Liam Mulvihill interjected to say that the Test under discussion would be the first, set for October 17th next, with the second taking place a week later in Croke Park where over 70,000 attended the second Test of the 2002 series.

The decision on a possible provincial venue will be announced soon, although the likelihood is that it will be one of the big venues in Munster with Limerick's Gaelic Grounds a strong possibility after an expensive refurbishment has left the county board anxious for any additional matches - particularly after Waterford eliminated the prospect of a lucrative Munster hurling semi-final between Tipperary and Clare.

On the subject of the series expanding to three Tests, the subject of speculation during last autumn's series in Australia, Kelly was non-committal.

"The Australians aren't that keen on it because of the time of year. We'll talk to them again because there's a lot of merit in the idea. The under-17s have just won their first series in Australia and that was played over three Tests."

Kelly was speaking at a media conference in Croke Park attended by new Ireland manager Peter McGrath, one of his selectors John Tobin and former Down player Mickey Linden, who was on both of McGrath's All-Ireland winning teams and will be the team's runner. The two other selectors, John O'Leary and Larry Tompkins, were unable to be there.

Of the management team, only Tobin has previous experience of this level of involvement in International Rules. He managed the Irish under-17s in 2000 and was runner to the team in the 1998 and '99 series. Both Tompkins and O'Leary, who captained Ireland in 1986, have experience as players.

According to McGrath the concentration at present is simply on watching as many matches as possible before drawing up a preliminary panel for training sessions in Dublin starting next month or early July.

"I've looked at videos of past series and it strikes you when you look at the game from the point of view of trying to learn about it, it's different to watching it as a spectator. We've lost the last two series and we'd be hoping that's not the beginning of a trend.

"It's the management team's job to pick players in good physical condition who are able to play the game. That's the challenge. Gaelic football and Australian Rules have a lot in common - you try to maximise your own players' strengths.

"We're not going in with any preconceived ideas about looking for a small skilful team or a physically robust team. My view is that the type of player most suited to International Rules is still the player who can play Gaelic football best. Gaelic football is a team game and different types of player are suited to different areas of the field. To a large extent the same applies to International Rules. There's no pre-cast mould of player who suits every position."

Last year for the first time Ireland suffered badly from the unavailability of key players because of injury and other reasons. McGrath was asked would he be trying to coax players previously involved back into contention for this year's series.

"Our intention is to talk to players and point out that the opportunity to represent your country doesn't come around very often."

He added that he would be giving careful consideration to the appointment of a captain, which he described as "vital".

Kelly also said that the GAA would be awarding caps or some form of recognition for the Ireland players in this year's series, which will once more be sponsored by Coca-Cola.