Brennan relieved at International Rules announcement

GAA President Nickey Brennan has expressed his relief that a two-test International Rules Series has been confirmed for October this year.

Speaking last night at the Cadbury's Hero of the Future awards at the Westin Hotel in Dublin, the Kilkenny man said he was happy that a long process of negotiation with the AFL was almost reaching conclusion.

"We have been working on this for quite some time as you are aware and have sat down with the Australians and gone through the rules," Brennan said.

The GAA President affirmed that it was the intention of all concerned that a two-match series would be on the cards and that specific details in relation to the staging of the game have to be finalised.

"We knew that there was going to be a two-game series and it was just a matter of finalising the cities with the Australians.

"Because of a number of other international sporting engagements we are trying to tie down matters at the moment."

And Brennan revealed that details of match venues for the games on October 24 and 31 will be unveiled in the coming days.

"We'll be announcing the actual venues within the cities, within the next week."

Brennan has spent the past week in Canada where the GAA in Toronto held their 40th anniversary celebrations, and he has not yet been talking to players or the Ireland management about the return of the hybrid game.

"I've been in touch in the past few days obviously with the people in the AFL," he said.

"I will be speaking with (the Ireland manager) Sean Boylan now to start focusing on the whole logistics around it, because getting a party all the way from here to Australia and all the issues involved in training and various other issues takes a bit of time.

"We will start to get our heads around that and get everything into place in the coming week."

Brennan also revealed that negotiations are at an advanced stage with a company to take over the sponsorship of the All-Star awards scheme. Telecommunications company Vodafone recently ended their involvement with the All-Stars.

It has been speculated this week that gas company Bord Gais may be set to take over the attractive sponsorship, although Brennan was keen to keep specific details of the new arrangement under wraps.

"We hope to make an announcement fairly soon but we think that anything that has been announced so far should be taken as pure speculation on the matter," he admitted.