GAELIC GAMES: It would be a shame if fixture congestion disrupts the momentum of the International Rules series. At a glance it's difficult to see why the rugby World Cup in Australia would prove such an obstacle to the two Tests, neither of which is played at grounds - Melbourne's MCG and Adelaide's Football Park - required by the rugby authorities.

The GAA have to be guided by the views of the AFL on the marketing difficulties posed by the World Cup but to the outsider, the task of promoting an Australian Rules project against a rugby union event in the footy strongholds of Victoria and South Australia would seem well within the bounds of possibility.

A complication with greater long-term potential for difficulty is the threatened late running of the GAA season. It won't be known for a while yet the precise impact the Special Olympics' use of Croke Park will have on the championship season next summer but even a delay of a week, coupled with the perennial threat of an All-Ireland replay, could wreak havoc.

There's no doubt that the GAA will be doing its utmost to shoehorn the Croke Park season into the Sundays available without prolonging the standard fixtures calendar.

However it all gets sorted out, both sides are aware of the new momentum the international project has received from last Sunday's riveting second Test. This year's series has been significant from a couple of perspectives. Firstly it reversed the downward trend of attendances last year in Australia. There were good reasons for that decline but it will have reassured all involved to see the Irish side maintain the steady growth in crowds here.

The second point concerns Australia. Ireland has traditionally been ahead of the game in terms of the poularity of the sport. The big attendances in 1999 in Melbourne and Adelaide came as a bit of surprise to all involved - not least, one felt, the AFL.

In the past and even at present it was evident that the Irish public's commitment to International Rules outstripped such enthusiasm as existed Down Under. This was partly because the interest of Australian players didn't seem as compelling. But there are signs that this is changing.

The sad events in Bali gave this year's tour more resonance for the visitors. It would have been the equivalent - even worse - of an Ireland team being in Australia at the time of Omagh. It gave the players a sense of togetherness in adversity that intensified the usual bonding process.

It was also the case that the travelling team was criticised before travelling as being weak and unimpressive. They had something to prove, as did the coach Garry Lyon who was anxious to redress the comprehensive beating his team received last year.

Lyon may become the first coach in nearly 20 years of International Rules to take a team for three series. If so it will be a welcome sign of enhanced commitment at the Australian end. He would also be in a good position to appreciate that the best panel isn't necessarily the All Australian (All Star equivalent) selection.

In the past the AFL have always upheld the right of the All Australians to get first option on the international places and this has hampered the team effort. There are withdrawals from the panel and also players aren't part of the preparations until the end-of-season awards are announced. Broadening the base would allow Lyon to select his preliminary panel that bit earlier.

ASHLEY BROWN is the managing editor of the AFL-Telstra network, which runs the excellent AFL website. In a very positive commentary on this year's International Rules series Brown makes four recommendations for improvement.

The first of these echoes the above point that Australia should select those players best suited to the international game.

"Let the All-Australian selection be all about honouring the best players over the course of the season," he says. "Let the team Lyon picks be all about beating Ireland and if it means playing nearly the same players as the year before, irrespective of how they played for their club, then so be it."

His three other recommendations are also interesting. Two address Australian problems and the other is general. Brown suggests that star players in the AFL - "marquee names" - be compelled to play, International Rules conscription as it were. This would hardly find favour with Australian coaches. Lyon at his first media press conference in Ireland scornfully dismissed the notion of "talking people into wearing the Guernsey".

Also addressed is the State of Origin competition (a Railway Cup equivalent that has experienced decline eerily similar to the GAA's interprovincials). For its die-hard advocates State of Origin has been oppressed by International Rules. Brown suggests that states follow the example of Western Australia, which continues to award State jerseys to its best AFL players and so defuse that potential for hostility.

The third area in which there has been great improvement is also covered by Ashley Brown's final recommendation: discipline. GAA president Seán McCague's startling threat to discontinue the series if unruly scenes in the first Test were repeated last Sunday may have been mostly for domestic consumption but it drew an impressive response from the AFL.

Despite a bit of grumbling in the home media the Australians fully endorsed the central point that indiscipline has no place in either of the constituent games and therefore none in the hybrid code.

Brown suggests that Australian players carry suspension into the AFL season and presumably by implication that Irish players be liable to similar punishment.

The referees were a great success. Scott McLaren, the AFL umpire, was unfairly pilloried for some crucial decisions against Ireland in both Tests. Yet video reveals his interpretations to have been correct. Even Australian television commentator Eddie Maguire said of one of the first Test decisions: "The Australians are not happy with that from an Australian referee".

Colm O'Rourke, RTÉ analyst and a former Ireland coach who by his own admission had problems with previous Australian umpires, said after the second Test that the refereeing had been impartial.

Ireland were unfortunate to get caught by the kick after the hooter last Sunday because the team deserved to split the series. Instead the free bounced over the bar and levelled the match.

But exactly the same thing happened last year in Melbourne and led indirectly to selector Paddy Clarke's suspension because the Irish seemed unaware that under the rules last-minute kicks can be taken.

Presumably the penny has now dropped and this won't happen again.