This year’s GAA Annual Congress is like the calm after the storm.
Every once in a while a Congress comes along that ushers in seismic change which alters the outlook of the Association.
The 2017 edition was one of those years when the GAA broke with decades of tradition to radically overhaul the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
The final has been moved from it’s traditional September slot and will be played in August (this year being an exception due to the Pope’s planned visit to Ireland) and two round-robin groups will replace the quarter-finals. These were big, big changes for an organisation as conservative as the GAA.
It didn’t stop there either - Championship games that finish level, bar provincial and All-Ireland finals, will go straight to extra-time.
And a move that slipped under a lot of radars was the decision to lower the majority required to change a rule from two-thirds of voters at Congress to 60 per cent, which ushers in the possibility of more change in the future.
We should have known, of course, that 2017 was going to be a radical year. At the opening of the affair on the Friday night John Horan was elected as the next GAA President on the first round of voting - not an outcome many had predicted.
Congress often takes on a life of its own - sometimes the gates swing open and motions pass through, other times they’re slammed shut and it’s harder to get through than a blanket defence.
Croke Park 12 months ago was the former and was even followed by a second 'Special' Congress in September, which ensured a restructured hurling championship would also apply from 2018.
So on to this year’s event, which is likely to be significantly more low-key. Certainly, there are no major changes on the horizon amongst the 40 motions that are set to be put before the 290-or-so delegates.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t expect fireworks, though. Amidst the in-depth talk about rules and the nitty-gritty debate about bye laws, a few hand grenades are always lobbed to liven up proceedings. There’ll also be the annual fun as delegates attempt to get their their heads around the electronic voting system.
Aogán Ó Fearghail will hand over the baton to Horan, who will assume power as GAA President this weekend and will then make a speech setting out his goals and ambitions for the next three years.
This year’s Congress will also be the last as Director General for Paraic Duffy, who will shortly step aside after ten years at the head of the Association. Final round interviews to find his replacement are believed to have taken place this week with the new Árd Stiúrthoir taking over in March.
Motion 8 looks to extend the powers of the new DG so that they 'may enter into any contract or transaction on behalf of the Association which is in the ordinary course of the business of the Association'.
There are fears in some quarters that this would lead to less accountability and dilute the power of Congress and/or Central Council and this is where we may see the first sparks of the weekend fly.
The opening motion up for debate is a call to ban all sponsorship by betting companies across all aspects of the GAA. This is being put forward by Central Council and, as a rule, motions sponsored by Croke Park pass through unmolested.
Further down the agenda, the Newport club in Tipperary are looking to define a ‘melee’, that most GAA of on-field rows, as involving five-or-more players - something that is likely to spark plenty of debate, though hopefully no handbags or schamozzles amongst delegates.
An interesting motion from the Club Players Association (CPA), put through St Mary’s, the Rosslare club in Wexford, is calling for greater transparency in terms of voting.
On the big issues, delegates are generally mandated to vote one way or the other by the clubs in their county, but in practice they are free to vote any way they want, or not at all, as famously happened in 2001 during a ballot on the opening up of Croke Park to soccer and rugby, a motion that failed to pass, when a significant number of delegates were ‘in the toilet’ at the vital time.
The CPA want to see all votes recorded, which should be a relatively straightforward process with the GAA’s e-voting system, and made public.
One of the more innovative motions comes from the Cooraclare club in County Clare, which wants the new All-Ireland Under-17 Football Championship, the replacement for the minor grade, to be played off in groups.
This would do away with the provincial championships, guarantee every county at least three games and, in theory, help weaker counties progress.
What isn't on the agenda is the GAA's television broadcast rights deal with Sky Sports, with several motions calling for the end of the partnership not making the agenda because a similar proposal in 2017 didn't get the required one-third of votes, thus ruling it ineligible to be discussed the following year.
Congress is only supposed to be at Croke Park every third year, but HQ plays host again over two days this weekend, starting on Friday night, because the county of an incoming president - in this case Horan - gets to hold the big shindig.
The most important slip of paper ar #GAAcongress17 #Lón #SoupSteakCake pic.twitter.com/3eQPfqPZGA
— Peter Sweeney (@Sweeney_Peter) February 25, 2017
The number of delegates that a county has is determined by the number of clubs in that county. So big units such as Dublin and Cork have maximum representation, and thus greater voting power, than the likes of Carlow and Leitrim at the other end of the scale.
Past presidents, overseas units, college, secondary school and primary school sectors and the GPA are amongst the others who have votes at GAA Congress. The CPA, of course, isn’t recognised, as their bid to become the official body representing club players last year failed.
Follow all of the news and latest developments from GAA Annual Congress on both days, starting on Friday evening, with our live tracker on rte.ie/sport and the News Now app
