An Australian Football League player was fined and forced to apologise to a dwarf entertainer set on fire during a prank in arguably the sport’s most bizarre end-of-season celebration.

Paraic Duffy admits this autumn’s International Rules series could be a hard sell because of Australia’s decision to send an indigenous-only selection.

Kilkenny are on the verge of losing one of their most promising starlets to the AFL.

Australian Rules officials are considering sending a team made up of indigenous players to meet Ireland for this year’s International Rules series.

World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey believes today’s damning report into widespread drug-taking and match-fixing in Australian sport should act as a wake-up call to governing bodies around the world.

Laois’ Carlton player Zach Tuohy has become embroiled in an umpire controversy in Australia after accusing the AFL of attempting to “gag” players.

THE International Series has provisionally been given the go-ahead for 2013 and 2014 after the GAA and AFL’s chiefs met in the Gold Coast yesterday.

Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast in Queensland has been announced as the second Test venue for this year's International Rules Series between Ireland and Australia.

AN 11-year-old boy who allegedly called another player a “nigger” during a junior Aussie Rules match in Geelong will face a tribunal hearing today.

Sean Wight, the former Kerry minor footballer and one of the first recruits for the so-called 'Irish Experiment' in Australian Rules, has died following a short illness.

News and opinions on the business side of sports

FORMER Roscommon footballer and Melbourne AFL player PaulEarley believes the decision to remove agent Ricky Nixon’s licence will have little or no impact on the Australian Rules recruitment drive in Ireland.

CONTROVERSIAL Australian Rules agent Ricky Nixon, currently in Ireland, may not be in a position to recruit any players while he is investigated for an alleged affair with a 17-year-old girl.

The International Rules Series will go ahead on October 21 and 28, 2011 in Australia, the GAA confirmed today.

AFL CHIEFS have officially stated that “first-choice players” from Gaelic football and hurling should be specifically targeted for recruitment for Australian Rules.

The 2010 International Rules Series has been confirmed for October this year, the GAA and the Australian Football League (AFL) announced today.

GAA ATTENDANCE figures for the season have exceeded all expectations, with director general Páraic Duffy indicating yesterday that numbers for the Championship have actually increased.

THE decision to defer the International Rules Series looks set to cost the Limerick economy €10 million.

ONE of the important points of discussion between the AFL and the GAA in Australia concerned the active recruitment of Gaelic players to the AFL.

FORMER Australia boss Kevin Sheedy has blamed the Irish team for inciting the violence which erupted in the 2005 International Rules Test in Melbourne.

THANKFULLY, the first test in the International Rules Series between Ireland and Australia worked a treat.

SYDNEY SWANS coach Paul Roos has expressed doubts about the proposed new Australian Rules team, the Sydney Celtics, which is to feature Irish players.

IRELAND’S most successful Australian Rules convert, Tadhg Kennelly, has warned GAA clubs and players off a controversial new recruitment drive to find new Irish talent for AFL clubs.

THE International Rules series emerged, officially, from the doghouse yesterday morning after the AFL Commission gave the green light for two test matches to take place in the last week of October.

Australian Football League bosses are meeting today in Australia for last-minute discussions over the staging of the International Rules series this October.

Plans to resurrect the much-criticised International Rules series have been struck a blow with two Ulster counties rejecting the idea of it coming back onto the GAA calendar.

The GAA and the Australian Football League (AFL) will meet in Dubai this week for talks in a bid to restore the future of the International Rules series.

GAA chiefs are to meet their AFL counterparts in Dubai next week to rubberstamp a decision to see whether the International Rules Series has a future.

GAA President Nickey Brennan is set to head for Paris in the morning for crisis talks with Aussie Rules chiefs to see if the future of the International Rules Series can be secured.

IT was not so much the Rumble in the Jungle as the Choker at the Croker.

THE future of international competition between the GAA and the Australian Football League will be debated in Dubai next week, when it’s expected an agreement will be reached to limit tours to every second year.

THE GAA’S best footballers may have left Australia empty handed after the last International Rules Series but the Association’s president and top officials certainly achieved more than a little revenge yesterday.

Australian football officials agreed a new code of conduct for the International Rules series today to eliminate the violent tackles that had put its future at risk.

AS GAA chiefs discuss the future of the International Rules series with the Australian Football League, the AFL are planning a tri-nation competition involving Ireland and South Africa.

The Australian Football League (AFL) are not interested in altering the rules so that players who commit offences in International Rules risk being suspended from their domestic game.

THERE’S a story that may interest the GAA hierarchy and send a shiver down the spines of RTÉ executives.

GAA chiefs will closely monitor the success of the latest deal between Australian Rules and computer giants Sony.

AUSTRALIAN rugby captain George Gregan said he gets a 7% performance boost by taking caffeine tablets before big games.

Australian Football bosses have urged the 16 AFL clubs to support the International Rules series with the GAA in Ireland or risk it going to the wall.

AUSSIE RULES bosses have warned that the International Rules series against Ireland is at risk and called upon the 16 AFL clubs to support the hybrid game.

AFL and GAA bosses have voiced their support for the future of the International Rules despite Ireland’s 50-point victory over the champions at Croke Park.

Australian captain James Hird has urged the AFL's best players to realise the importance of representing their country in the annual International Rules series.