"Evolution not revolution" is how incoming President John Horan described the GAA’s approach to change and so it proved at a relatively straightforward annual congress at Croke Park today.
Following a dramatic 2017 that featured two congresses and championship reform in both football and hurling, it was a more quotidian affair this time around.
That’s not to say there weren’t decisions of note.
The first motion of the day was among the most popularly supported: All sponsorship by betting companies has now been banned by the association.
The move was welcomed by the Gaelic Players Association, who revealed that a large number of their members seeking support had done so for gambling problems.
Two proposals arising from the clash of Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald and Tipperary forward Jason Forde on the field last year had differing fates.
The penalty for "minor physical interference with an opposing team official" has been defined at one match but the Tipperary suggestion that a melee be defined as five or more persons was sunk in a metaphorical schemozzle about interpretation.
The most hotly debated motion of the day was the Club Players Association initiative, put forward by St Mary’s Rosslare, calling for votes at Congress to be a matter of public record.
Most delegates are mandated to vote in a certain way but in practice this doesn’t always transpire.
Despite the passionate pleas of former Wexford hurling manager Liam Griffin, who asked "Why are we afraid of being honest?", 83% voted no, with delegates expressing concern that it suggested a lack of trust and even talk of "witch hunts".
Other changes of note included: the under 21 hurling championship becoming Under 20 in line with the changes to Gaelic football; the ability of clubs outside of Ireland to seek permission to share facilities with other sports; and the use of ‘resident’ players in hurling to be restricted to Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cup counties.
The likes of Charlie Redmond and Colm Coyle would no doubt raise a smile at the final decision of the day: Players sent off in a final are no longer forbidden from taking part in post-match celebrations.
In his inaugural address, new figurehead Horan expressed his determination to tackle elitism in Gaelic Games and vowed to put the club at the centre of his three-year term in office.
Horan, the first Dubliner elected president since Daniel McCarthy in 1921, said he had grown up "just a couple of long pucks from here" in Glasnevin, where "the rumbling noise of the crowds at Croke Park caught my imagination."
The school principal will be among a select group of presidents within walking distance of the office but said he had already "travelled widely with the GAA, both around Ireland and overseas" and listened to the concern of hundreds of club members.
Horan rejected the notion of a disconnect between them and the Association but promised the establishment of a National Club Committee to increase support for the GAA's grassroots: "Our vast network of clubs will be foremost in my thinking."
The former Leinster Council chairman stated that "elitism is a threat to our amateur status" but said it was up to the members to "make it a core value in how we conduct ourselves.
"It’s clubs and counties who have the power to control the amateur status and set a standard that illustrates its importance to the Association. We won’t preserve the amateur status through rules passed in Croke Park".
He also expressed particular concern around inter-county development squads, saying that "the emphasis at underage level needs to be about participation and enjoyment."
