TRYING to keep up with developments in rugby these days is a hazardous occupation.

As soon as one thing is agreed another part of the fabric of the game unravels and, in the minds of many, all the bickering and wheeling-dealing merely serves to reduce any consistent interest in the game.

The danger now is that some of the people who profess to have the best interests of the game at heart - a rather flimsy claim at the best of times - seem to be well on the way to causing serious damage to the entire fabric of the game.

It is best therefore to steer away from the subject for the time being until some form is restored to the game.

Nevertheless there are some things to be learned from what is happening and it behoves everyone to keep a weather eye on the ball, regardless of its shape.

For that reason it is to be hoped, that the people in whose destiny Gaelic football and hurling lies, are keeping their eyes on the ball and that they have not been lured into a false sense of security by the continued growth in interest in the games under the guardians hip and control of the GAA.

From time to time one hears of "calls" for the GAA to pay players to play the games. These "calls" are often sought for and given credence by "media" people short of a yarn and a big headline.

It all seems rather innocent now but there was a huge schemozzle about 10 years ago when members of the great Kerry team posed with a washing machine in return for a contribution to their holiday fund. Earlier there had been an unmerciful row in Cork when players were bold enough to agree to wear shorts with three red stripes (adidas) running down the outside of the leg.

Nowadays you can't look at a photograph of a player on the pitch without being blinded by slogans and logos of all sorts and sizes and the All-Ireland finals in hurling and football have ceased to be simply All-Ireland's but bear the labels and logos of commercial firms.

The GAA must be wary of letting this trend go too far and learn a lesson from their rugby friends - who appear to be in a tail spin as they are overtaken by events with greedy businessmen and television moguls snarling at each other over the bones of a noble game.

It was horrifying to hear recently that on a radio programme, in Kerry of all places, the view was expressed that, if Kerry could not regain what it considers to be its rightful place at the GAA's top table it should import some proven top-class players from outside.

There was a time when such an outrageous suggestion would have met with an appropriate response but, apparently, it was considered, however briefly, as a serious option.

People may say that Cork did exactly that some years ago when Larry Tompkins and Shea Fahy moved from Kildare to win All-Ireland medals in Cork but there were circumstances which made this acceptable. Fahy, as an Army man and Tompkins then unemployed moved for very good and quite acceptable reasons.

While both transferred for career reasons the rules as couched were not broken. Perhaps now is the time to take a look at those rules for there are rumours flying around that some of the rules are, in fact, being broken and not 1OO miles from Croke Park either.

The old parish rule is simply redundant and can no longer be either policed or implemented. What has to be guarded against is any hint of a move towards a transfer system which would make it possible for some of the bigger, stronger, richer counties from luring proven players from other clubs or counties simply for playing reasons.

What this would surely do would be to ruin the very fabric of the GAA. Its greatest treasure is the local devotion to club and county.

Nobody can have any objection to players being treated properly and even generously for their own generosity to the game and its ethos. Facilities, clothing, medical care and an acceptance that family members often play a big part in team preparation.

A suggestion that players should be rewarded directly and financially must never be allowed for, as the rugby people have seen to their cost, that would simply open up the floodgates to professionalism and - eventually greed and self-seeking.

Nobody is now quite sure who is running the game of rugby at the moment. Is it the unions who protected, nurtured and developed the game down the barren years or the greedy, ego-tripping businessmen or the even greedier television moguls whose only interest is a balance sheet?

Sadly the latter would appear to be in control. When players refuse to turn up for training in order to put financial pressure on those who are the people with the game at heart. When a mere month of the season starting a former All-Black player is the subject of a transfer dispute between two clubs in Britain anyone with the life of sport at heart should pause and reflect on the dangerous developments which bring such things about.

The GAA would be disloyal to itself even to contemplate for a moment any direct monetary rewards to players at any level of the game for that would surely bring down the whole house of cards.

Instead the funds which are coming into the games from the paying public and from sponsors and various other sources must be used to develop the games and the facilities which modern young people need and are entitled to expect must be provided. Otherwise the games would face a very bleak future.