In the wake of the changes that have been made to next season’s Diamond League, which will see triple jump, discus, 200 metres and 3,000 metres steeplechase excluded from the final in Zurich - and in the case of the first two, from the League itself - a new representative group, The Athletics Association, has been set up.

As billed, the instigator of this initiative, world and Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor, has met the World Athletics’ President Sebastian Coe and chief executive Jon Ridgeon to speak about the way forward.

And that, despite the unresolved issues that remain, really does seem to be the direction of travel.

Naturally those athletes most closely involved with these changes - which World Athletics have instituted in response to surveys indicating their top tier product needs to be shorter and snappier in order to retain and gain new and younger audiences - have offered their opinions over the course of the last three days.

Yulimar Rojas, women’s world triple jump champion and - almost - world record holder, spoke of the "hard blow" which the news has been, and said she earnestly hoped the decision could be reversed.

Sweden’s discus thrower Daniel Stahl, whose lumbering, joyful sprint - and hurdle - after winning his first big title at the Doha World Championships broke the internet, told journalists ahead of the World Athlete of the Year awards at Grimaldi Forum that he was, effectively, putting things on hold.

While his coach Vesteinn Hafsteinsson spoke initially of quitting when he heard about the Diamond League decision, he remains. And Stahl spoke very carefully and deliberately about the need "not to get angry, to shout or swear", but instead to work with the International Federation with a view to influencing changes.

Taylor, with the kind of diplomacy that makes one ever more certain he will play a central role in his beloved sport for many years to come, made it clear that while he remained, as he initially posted, "incredibly disappointed" about the decision he was looking beyond the current issues to a new relationship between athletes and their governing body.

The 29-year-old Florida-based athlete is patently sincere in what he says, and it is very obvious how widely he is admired among his peers.

The most valuable response from the World Athletics leaders has been, one suspects, that of trying to convince the athletes involved that they actually are, really are, listening.

It certainly helped the atmosphere that this weekend marked the arrival of two athletes as full voting members of the Council - France's world pole vault champion Renaud Lavillenie and New Zealand's four-times world and double Olympic shot put champion Dame Valerie Adams. Both come fully armed with strong and independent opinions, and Lavillenie has already featured in tweets sent out detailing the rapid spread of membership of the Athletics Association.

Hundreds of athletes have signed up, from Olympic and world champions down to junior and club runners.

There has been a strong emphasis from World Athletics on the fact that the new set-up is only for 2020, after which there will be a thorough review.

There has also been a presentation concerning the new second tier of competition that will be set up, as a pilot version, next year, under the monicker of the Continental Tour.

This will bring together, initially, ten of the top meetings outside the Diamond League under the same branding, and - thanks to the financial input from the new title sponsors of the League, the Chinese multinational conglomerate Wanda Group - offering prize money, albeit at a lower level.

Top tier events in the new Tour - including all four of the ones displaced - will have $200,000 available for each meeting, with each event involving $20,000 and with winners getting $6,000. In the Diamond League the equivalent figures are $30,000 and $10,000.

All will retain their wild cards for the winners to go on to the 2021 World Championships in Eugene.

And hammer throwing, which has been out on its own in the Hammer Challenge, will come at least partially into the fold.

Stahl’s reaction to the new Tour was positive - although he added that the issue of Diamond League inclusion was not going away.

Speaking on behalf of the promoters, Alfonz Juck, who runs the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting, said this initiative marked a new closeness and cooperation between those he spoke for and the governing body.

The intention is that the Tour will grow, and eventually encompass all six of the World Athletics regions.

The question was asked at the launch, and it was a good one - would there be a system of promotion and relegation between the two tiers of competition?

Answer - No. The Diamond League is a separate business. The Tour is a Tour, not a League.

Ridgeon knows where Taylor is coming from on all this. In 1996 he was among a small group of competitors who formed an association for British athletes.

That group was short-lived. Taylor is keen to ensure that The Athletics Association has greater longevity. It will be properly registered, and it will follow best practice in other sports by putting together an advisory board of experts in fields such as broadcasting and marketing.

All this comes down to trust. And all those who wish well to the paramount Olympic sport will hope that the trust that appears to have been engendered in the Principality during this gathering can continue and grow stronger.