A LEADING Croke Park official has warned of direconsequences for GAA county boards if remedial action is not taken immediately to address financial difficulties.

AS treasurer Eamonn Buckley told delegates after the 2008 accounts showed almost a 50% jump from the previous year’s figures: “You won’t have success without cost.”

THE new standing playing rules committee will come on stream in the next couple of weeks with the square ball rule expected to be high on their agenda.

ULSTER secretary Danny Murphy believes the new GAA playing rules committee must consider abolishing the square ball rule in open play for the betterment of Gaelic games and the benefit of referees following Sunday’s controversy.

Laois native Liam O'Neill will succeed Christy Cooney as President of the GAA in 2012.

GAA president-elect Liam O’Neill last night revealed that a hurling centre of excellence will be the main plank in the Association’s soon-to-be-released plan to develop the game.

The GAA will today formalise Liam O’Neill’s election as GAA president after all other candidates pulled out for the first time in the modern era, Jim O’Sullivan looks into how it happened.

GAA Director General Paraic Duffy has confirmed that Hawk-Eye technology will come in for the 2012 Championships if adopted at Congress.

LIAM O’NEILL is set to become the next GAA President as his only remaining rival Sheamus Howlin will later today announce he is withdrawing from the contest.

DONEGAL’S Tom Daly has withdrawn from the race to become the next GAA president, making it a two-horse race between Liam O’Neill and Sheamus Howlin to succeed Christy Cooney.

THE race to become the next GAA president is, for now, a three-horse race, but could shortly be reduced to two if outgoing Leinster chairman Sheamus Howlin follows Con Hogan’s example and withdraws his candidacy.

GAA presidential candidate Tom Daly has been officially nominated by all nine Ulster counties to succeed Christy Cooney.

GAA PRESIDENTIAL candidate Liam O’Neill has acknowledged his opinion on the hot topic of payments to managers may differ from that of Director General Páraic Duffy.

MICK O’DWYER has backed GAA presidential candidate Con Hogan’s “super-coach” proposal as a means of addressing under-the-table payments to managers.

PAURIC DUFFY’S internal discussion paper on the GAA’s hottest potato — under the table payments to inter-county manager — is likely to be thrashed out by the Association’s management committee later this week.

TIPPERARY stars and officials paid tribute to John Doyle yesterday.

SPENDING on Tipperary’s various inter-county teams has hit an all-time high, coming in at over €1.2m this year.

LEINSTER chairman Sheamus Howlin won’t decide until the new year if he will contest the GAA presidential race.

LEINSTER Council Chairman Sheamus Howlin is set to be the fourth candidate to challenge for the post of GAA President at next April’s Congress in Mullingar.

TIPPERARY’S GAA presidential candidate Con Hogan last night defended his suggestion for the provision of payments to inter-county managers in a “super coach” role similar to the one given to John Evans in the Premier County earlier this year.

The Tipperary County Board remained tight-lipped about the senior hurling manager vacancy at last night’s County Board meeting in Thurles.

IRELAND is trapped in an economic vortex, emigration and unemployment levels are soaring.

STUDY the GAA for long enough and you will realise that the fuel which runs the organisation is trust.

The chairman of the pitch invasions’ committee has backed the provinces’ decision not to try on-field presentations after their senior finals and revealed that the GAA is unlikely to use them after the All-Irelands in September.

The chairman of the pitch invasions’ committee has backed the provinces’ decision not to try on-field presentations after their senior finals and revealed that the GAA is unlikely to use them after the All-Irelands in September.

Laois man Liam O'Neill has become the first person to declare himself as a candidate in the race to succeed Cork native Christy Cooney as GAA President.

INTER-COUNTY teams could face suspensions if they fail to inform anti-doping officials of changes to their training schedules.

IT was a long drive home from Congress on Saturday, one that offered more than enough time to wonder idly about what the soundtrack would be for the GAA’s annual think-tank if it had been covered live on TV.

THE GAA leadership resorted to a form of shock treatment at the opening session of annual Congress in Newcastle, Co. Down last night with the showing of a video highlighting the dangers of pitch invasions to launch a campaign aimed at stamping out the practice and avoiding a Heysel Stadium or Hillsborough-type tragedy.

THE ongoing debate on pitch invasions in Croke Park after All-Ireland finals will be addressed at the opening session of the GAA Congress tonight.

LONG-serving Carlow secretary Tom O’Neill insists the county have earned the right to play in the Liam MacCarthy Cup next year.

TIPPERARY GAA officials are confident that irrespective of the entertainment value of tonight’s Allianz NHL game between Tipperary and Cork, the official switching-on of the new floodlighting system in Thurles will not overshadow the special occasion.

THE TO-DO list was pretty long in Semple Stadium, but over eighteen months they ticked all the boxes Floodlights.

UNUSUALLY for the GAA Congress which can often turn into a boring, long drawn-out affairs, the weekend gathering of delegates delivered the full gamut of emotions. They ranged from the frustration of opponents of the government grant scheme in losing the final battle, to the exultation of president-elect Christy Cooney on succeeding second time round with 60 votes to spare.

GAA Congress in Sligo has voted for the Governments scheme to reward inter county players.

LIAM O’NEILL, who replaced Nickey Brennan as Leinster Council chairman and has ambitions to succeed him as GAA President, has admitted that circumstances forced him to declare his 2008 candidature earlier than he would have wished.

TIPPERARY County Board yesterday announced an €18 million redevelopment plan for Semple Stadium.

The Dublin and Tyrone players suspended for their involvement in the violent scenes that marred their counties' league clash last month have succeeded in having their bans overturned.

DUBLIN and Tyrone are considering whether to appeal the penalties imposed by the Central Disciplinary Committee (CDC) yesterday.

THE GAA’s disciplinary body, the Central Disciplinary Committee (CDC), tonight begins the investigation of the controversial NFL tie between Tyrone and Dublin in Omagh last Sunday.