Five manic, mad, maddening minutes.

That’s all it took to despatch the International Rules football encounters between Ireland and Australia to those dark outer orphanages where lurk the ill-conceived and equally irrelevant sporting offspring of mismatched games and codes. Like Kazakh yak throwing contests, Samoan reef hopping and indoor Saskatchewan pine cone juggling.

Somewhere between five past and ten past two last Sunday the immediate series died a death but it took to its early grave the prospect of the contacts continuing beyond the day.

The dark, thundery looks on Nicky Brennan’s and Liam Mulvihill’s visages spoke louder even than Brennan’s frank after-match comments. He handed the Cormac McAnallen Cup and the microphone to the Australian captain, Barry Hall, with the tips of his fingers almost as if he feared being infected by the same Antipodean madness that had ruined the first quarter of the game. It was the most joyless presentation witnessed in Croke Park since Luke O’Toole handed over the cheque to purchase the old cycling track at Jones’s Road.

In the immediate aftermath of this debacle the GAA was faced with a choice. It could either hang together with the Australian Football League or hang separately. Wisely, it has decided to hang separately.

Let’s be clear and rational about a few things. In the overall, global scheme of things – the big wide world of sports, marketing, sponsorship, attendances, media audiences – both Gaelic games and Australian Rules are tiny, regional sports. On Rupert Murdoch’s arse they are no more than tiny pimples. They are tolerated because, for the moment, there appears to be no more cost-effective way for sponsors and advertisers to access their reasonably prosperous and growing markets. If these markets were anything other than English speaking the marketing moguls mightn't even bother.

Sport today – or at least, sports administration – is dominated by one overall consuming objective. To create a one-stop-shop marketing vehicle for the world’s global companies and brands – the Hyundais, Fords, Heinekens, Nikes, Citroens and so on of this world. That means: one language (English), one sport, one satellite channel, one dominant media group, a world-wide audience. For the major brands it basically means one investment in marketing materials like logos, videos, brands, posters, TV and print ads that will run successfully across more than a hundred markets in one go. Talk about cutting costs and maximising return on your investment!

And you’re guessed correctly. Soccer is probably the only sport that fits the bill perfectly. Athletics manages it every four years – but only every four years – with the Olympics. Rugby fits the profile sporadically in some commercially attractive parts of the world – essentially the old British empire. Other sports, too, pass the test fairly strongly in certain regions but not worldwide. For example, baseball or basketball in the old colonial redoubts of the US – the Phillipines, Japan, Cuba; cricket across the Asian footprint of the ‘Empah’.

The AFL needs this type of overseas outlet and link up with a global brand like Coca Cola far more than we do at the moment. Rugby and soccer – driven by their relatively recent world cups – have put AFL under increasing pressure. Sports mad Australia is one of the few countries where an authoritative report is prepared every year tracking the relative fortunes of competing sports for the benefit of advertisers, sponsors and media. It’s called the Sweeney Report. Last time AFR looked, the Aussie Rules share of the sports ‘market’ had deteriorated noticeably in favour of rugby following their world cup. The latest we hear is that there has been another huge fall-off in the direction of soccer after that world cup. Now, both soccer and rugby are snapping at the heels of AFL for the number 1 slot. The international media moguls and marketers can’t wait.

The GAA is in a much stronger position to withstand any global onslaught. Ironically, the parish-based, amateur status of our games is probably one of our greatest defences. Our population is growing, the country is prosperous and adherence to Gaelic games still relies on the major element of being a badge of Irish identity. The domestic franchise of Gaelic games is far stronger than that of AFL. In addition, through a combination of good luck and bad – plus some foresight and vision – Gaelic games is developing an interesting franchise abroad that will never happen for AFL.

Our games overseas have traditionally been confined to a relative handful of big centres in the United States and Britain and they reflected the pattern of involuntary emigration of the forties and fifties. Almost invariably, they were played by Irish people who worked in construction, in bars or in the police or fire service and who struggled to put down roots, preferring to stay with ‘the divils they know’. Now, however, the majority of Irish who emigrate go because they want to and they have an open mind as to when or how they will return. They are well educated, self-confident, integrated into their workplaces and communities in adopted cities in several continents and they bring their games with them as a badge of pride and identity.

The result is that Gaelic games are now starting to gain a foothold on several continents and there is increasing interest in playing them among the population of ‘ex-pats’ of all nationalities. We see an increasing number of regular international tournaments where teams from various countries get together to challenge each other. For example, in Spain, Barcelona Gaels have run summer camps for up to 400 Catalan children. The city of Milwaukee, in the United States, is a massive centre of GAA activity, the vast bulk of it depending on people of non-Irish origin.

Slowly, but surely, in select cities around the world, the appeal of Gaelic games is reaching out to thousands of people of non-Irish origin. There are county boards for Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Up to now, we have always seen this as just something of novelty value: ‘Sure, Holy God, isn’t it marvelous to see Cheng Yang kicking d’oul football?’ However, many of the people currently involved in Gaelic games overseas are serious people. They’ve played at Sigerson, Fitzgibbon or Ashbourne level or have turned out in county finals at home. They want international competition with a real ‘bite’ in it, not just some fleeting, patronizing visit every few years by the All Stars.

This is where our priority should lie for the future international development of our games.

At this stage, it is too early to be prescriptive about how it might look. What we need is an open debate, involving the overseas units, and maybe some kind of top level expert committee that would study this opportunity and come back with a series of recommendations. Ideally, these should take a ten to fifteen year developmental view, with clear priorities and targets set and a clear designation of accountability and resources. It will be crucial to make funding for this programme, plus exposure ‘in kind’, a critical part of all future broadcasting and satellite deals for coverage of Gaelic games. In other words, if you want to cover the All Ireland finals what are your plans for giving sustained coverage to Gaelic football in, say, Melbourne or Calgary? Same goes for major sponsorship deals.

Maybe a revamped Railway Cup is part of the solution? An Fear Rua acknowledges this as an option. More likely might be an ‘inter county board’ World Cup competition, leading to a senior club competition on the lines of the AIB championship at home; ultimately, full ‘internationals’. The Railway Cup could play a role if the teams were funded to remain in a designated city f