One door opens, another may slam shut

On GAA: Quite why there was so much fuss about the decision to grant the requests of the FAI and IRFU to rent Croke Park for their 2007 internationals is a mystery. The substantive decision was taken back in April, and Central Council's only role was to give effect to the motion that was passed.

Having run scared of their powers under Rule 42 - which prohibits the use of GAA grounds for "field games other than those sanctioned by Central Council" - on the basis that such a momentous issue could be decided only by annual congress, Central Council could hardly fly in the face of such a decision once it had been made.

Yet there are limits to this literalism. The motion passed by Congress made specific reference to the rule not applying "during a period when Lansdowne Road football ground is closed for proposed development".

Whereas Central Council was prepared to make the leap of faith in response to assurances from the IRFU that the Ballsbridge venue would have its planning permission by the beginning of 2007, the matter was clearly left open for review if that permission were not forthcoming.

Some of those diametrically opposed to the opening of Croke Park still hold out hope that the conditions for relaxing Rule 42 might never come to pass. Should the planning process drag on, or should it come to a negative conclusion - as it is more than capable of doing - the whole question of the redevelopment might well have to be re-evaluated. In those circumstances, Central Council clearly wouldn't be bound by its decision last week.

There would then have to be a new proposal put to Congress to reflect the new reality of a green-field site being acquired and developed. In the interim, Lansdowne Road would have to continue to be used.

Even if the planning process overruns its rather optimistic timetable by a few months, that would be the end of the rugby internationals for 2007 because, with the World Cup following later that year, there would be no friendly autumn fixtures for Ireland. A couple of soccer matches might be on the agenda, but it remains to be seen how the Euro 2008 qualifiers pan out when the groups are drawn.

It is one advantage of the country's declining status as seeds that the group matches are likely to include more box-office opposition, but waning fortunes also damage attendances, which makes the selection of a new management for the national soccer team a matter of some interest even on Jones's Road. If Ireland's form picks up, there'll be greater revenue in leasing Croke Park when that happens.

And despite the above misgivings, it is still likely that soccer and rugby will be played there even if the 2007 deadline proves overly ambitious. This is because the one thing that can't happen in the long term is Lansdowne Road continuing to be used as an international venue. Whether the old ground is closed for redevelopment or forever, the FAI and IRFU will still need a temporary home.

It would hardly be reasonable for any future Congress to refuse to vary the terms of last April's motion in order to adapt to a situation in which a new stadium, rather than Lansdowne, is under construction - and hardly likely that it would.

On the same afternoon that the GAA was generously making provision for other international teams, it also seemed quite prepared to remove from its own players the opportunity to represent their country. The hostility towards International Rules was sufficiently marked for it to have been a good bet that the plug would have been pulled on the whole project had a vote been taken, instead of the matter being deferred pending its discussion at county conventions.

What happened in the second Test in Melbourne little over five weeks ago has become the lightning rod for assorted gripes with the international game: playing against professionals, the risk of AFL recruitment, the safety of the players, disruption of club schedules and the plain, classical insularity of the Gael.

Indeed, it is darkly amusing that an organisation, which allowed blatantly dangerous fouls go unpunished during the summer, should suddenly be wringing its hands at blatantly dangerous fouls in another hemisphere - particularly considering that the latter perpetrator has had his international career effectively terminated as a result.

Moves are now afoot to curtail the recruitment of Irish players by AFL clubs by not allowing them sign on the cheap as international rookies. This will effectively bring to a halt Australian interest in players, who after all haven't previously played the rules game.

This will be seen as a conciliatory gesture in the context of the international game, but in fact it is largely unconnected. No player has been recruited as a result of exposure during the senior series. The under-17 series is a different matter, and as a result it may perish in the current climate. But it should be remembered that prior to the junior series there were as many recruits from the simple conduct of trials among minors.

How many made careers in the AFL? Jim Stynes, Seán Wight and latterly Tadhg Kennelly. How many returned home having benefited from the experience and went on to have prominent careers in Gaelic football? Dermott McNicholl, Colin Corkery, Anthony Tohill, Niall Buckley, Brian Stynes. In other words, the GAA has benefited as much as the AFL from this migration.

It is purely the instinct of the dog in the manger to try to obstruct it. As an amateur organisation, the GAA can't offer its members the fulfilment of full-time careers in sport, so why prevent them from sampling the experience when the evidence is that the drain of talent isn't significant - however disappointing it may be for the players' teams back home? Would the GAA be justified in stopping a member from emigrating to take up an attractive career opportunity in any other walk of life?

If the GAA decides that it wants to halt international connections, then so be it. But it will be a depressingly introverted move to accept that cross-cultural connections with the AFL, which prepared and trained a largely rookie side to rack up 2-23 with an unfamiliar round ball in 70 minutes of the first Test, have nothing to offer our players in terms of challenge and experience.

Do we really believe that? Even in this season of fantasy and wish fulfilment?