AFL decision to defer Rules Series trip a frustrating blow

LIKE a bolt from the blue came the announcement that the Australians weren’t coming to our shores this year.

There we were, with the dates in our diaries and looking forward to watching the International Rules Series at the Gaelic Grounds and Croke Park. Limerick was going to be a great occasion. It was going to be the first time that the redeveloped Gaelic Grounds was going to be floodlit and filled to capacity while the affair was going to generate at least €10m to the local economy. Now all of a sudden, the Treaty City faces another economic body blow.

Nobody saw this coming and the reason given by the AFL is barely plausible — the recession. Now, we all know that the recession is worldwide but is much worse here than in many other countries. Australia isn’t half as badly hit as Ireland and anyway this recession has been going on for almost a year. How does it suddenly dawn on the AFL that it would be uneconomic to travel to Ireland in 2009? Granted, in recessionary times, sponsorship is harder to come by. But the International Rules have been able to make a profit consistently and all the indications were that both Limerick and Croke Park would have generated plenty surplus cash. Indeed, the games in Ireland have, in recent years, attracted bigger attendances than in Australia. The GAA, aware of this, wanted to move to a different model of dividing the spoils. Something along the lines of what we make, we keep. So the GAA would keep the lion’s share of the profit when the games were played in Ireland and the AFL would do, likewise, when games were in Australia. It is easy to see who the real winners would be in that situation — naturally, the GAA.